How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse
by The Mad Hatteress
Summary: Josh, Aaron, Will, and Evanz find themselves thrown into a world gone wrong. Zombies roam the streets. Will they learn from all their years of gaming? Or will things not go their way? Rated M for bad language Featuring RageGamingVideos, GenerationHollow, TheCaptainFluke, and Evanz111
1. Chapter 1

**How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse**

**Chapter One- Run**

**A/N – This is my first time writing something about real people in this way, so I'm kinda nervous! I'll just say, I've used their real first names, except in the case of Evanz because as far as I know his first name is William and that would get confusing. This is sort of set in Leeds but as I don't know much about Leeds I've made up the area.**

The man on the ground was dark-skinned, and handsome, and dead. Josh thought he was sleeping, since he looked fairly peaceful. Besides, his slightly intoxicated brain hadn't immediately jumped to the conclusion that the stranger was dead. That would be weird. He, Aaron, Will, and Evanz had decided to go out to the pub for the evening. Fish Spider Industries was already up and he'd felt they deserved the night off. The others had been more than happy to agree, so off the four went to the local boozer. Aaron was pretty much sober, as was Evanz, but Josh and Will were a little more on the drunken side. The inebriated YouTuber stumbled over the stranger's leg.

"Sorry, mate," he said, waving an apologetic hand at the corpse. The corpse made no move, since it was, of course, dead. Aaron bent down next to the figure.

"Hey, man, are you alright?" He gingerly shook his shoulder.

And that was when the corpse sat up and groaned. Evanz pulled Aaron back.

"Leave it, he's probably just drunk. Don't worry. We need to get these guys home." He gestured over his shoulder to the others. "They're a danger to themselves in this state." Will wobbled up behind him.

"Look, Evanz, man, don't worry! We're fine!" Will slurred, resting a heavy hand on his shoulder. Evanz rolled his eyes. Aaron turned back briefly to look at the figure on the floor. At least, it had been on the floor. Now it was standing up and reaching its arms out. Aaron took a step back, certain now that Evanz had been right. The stranger was just a drunk.

The next thing Aaron registered was that he was flat on the ground with the stranger on his back. Josh and Will grabbed at the figure and tried to pull him away. It groaned and growled and tried to bite at Aaron's neck.

"Shit!" Evanz's panicked shout was joined by a chorus of screams and cursing from the general public as they ran down the street. Children were picked up and carried by terrified parents, couples grabbed at each other's hands, and the four friends pulled away from their attacker and joined the mob sprinting down the street. Aaron looked over his shoulder at his friends.

"My house, quick! We'll hide there and figure out what to do!" He called, and got fearful nods in return. Josh, suddenly much more sober, chanced a look over his shoulder. What he saw scared him. A horde of shambling, decaying figures advancing on the mass of fresh meat. We must look like meals on fucking wheels, he thought. Aaron veered off down a dark alleyway, leading the three men hot on his heels back to his apartment. He and Will bashed the door of the building off its hinges and they ran up the stairs. Evanz took his chance to look around outside before dashing off after them. By the time he reached the door, the others were already inside. "Evanz, quick!" Aaron shouted. No need to ask twice.

The door slammed behind them and the four stood in the hallway, breathing hard from the exertion. "I fucking knew it! I said, when the human race ends, it'll be a fucking zombie apocalypse!" Josh panted, clutching his knees. Will shot him a glare.

"Now's not the time to be smug, dickhead. We need to get out alive first." He said, straightening up. He turned to Aaron. "Do you have anything here we could use? Armour, weapons, provisions, shit like that."

"I have a lot of food. I only went shopping yesterday. As for weapons, the most deadly thing I have is a fucking frying pan." Aaron said, locking the door for his apartment. Evanz was already ahead of him, locking the windows and drawing the curtains. The four of them looked at each other, and Josh burst into hysterical laughter.

"Sorry," he said, noticing the confused looks from his friends, "but it's funny! We spend our entire lives playing video games and now it's like we're in one!"

Evanz shook his head with a slight smile. "Hopefully we've learnt something from them."

Aaron shrugged. "Well, you assholes, you did force me to play War Z. Oh wait, I meant Infestation Survivor Stories."

Will folded his arms. "Then you should be able to get us through this." Then he smiled and walked into the small kitchen. Aaron and Josh went into Aaron's bedroom to try and find something to carry food in and things they could use as weapons against hordes of the undead. Evanz went after Will and started going through the cupboards on the other side of the room.

"You know we're fucked, right?" Evanz said, grabbing some cans of soup and beans and placing them on the sideboard. Will made a movement that was halfway between a shrug and a shiver.

"Yeah. I know. But we might as well try, man."

Josh looked around Aaron's room, scanning for large or heavy objects. The biggest thing in the plain white room was the computer, resting on the desk pushed against the wall. He watched his friend rummaging through the wardrobe in search of a weapon.

"Found anything yet?" He asked, trying to look like he was at least attempting to find something. Aaron didn't reply. Josh sighed and walked over to the window, peering out into the darkness. He stumbled back with a cry.

"Shit! Shit, shit, shit!" He yelled. Aaron whirled around, and Evanz and Will crashed into the room, staring at Josh in confusion and anger.

"What the fuck, dude?" Will cried. "You'll attract the zombies to us!"

"Too late." Aaron pointed to the source of Josh's distress. A large mass of the undead were shuffling down towards the door of his apartment block. Evanz turned to the door of Aaron's room.

"We have probably fifteen minutes before they're at this door. We need to get as much as we can. Aaron, how can we get out?" He asked, trying hard to keep the panic out of his voice. "The door is a no-go."

Will ran into the kitchen and grabbed all the food he and Evanz had found, spotted a medium-sized rucksack leaning near Aaron's door, and commenced stuffing all the cans and packets into the backpack. Josh had come to his senses again and rushed into the living room, looking for a weapon. There was a bent plastic sword lying next to the bookcase. He gave Aaron a sceptical look as the brunette walked into the living room, immediately moving over to the window whilst Evanz dragged the sofa over to block the door. Aaron shrugged at Josh.

"A fan gave it to me. It isn't going to do much damage to a zombie."

"We should take it anyway." Will interjected, clattering around in the drawers of Aaron's kitchen, searching for the frying pan he'd heard about earlier. Evanz used the small peep hole on the front door to see if the hordes of the decaying undead were on their doorstep. Thankfully, the corridor was clear. Aaron called them over and motioned to the window.

"There's another apartment building right there. We can jump down on to the roof, and climb down somewhere else." He unlocked the window and pushed it open. Josh stared at him, incredulous.

"You want us to jump down there? We can't parkour in fucking Minecraft, we won't be able to do it in real life!"

Aaron shrugged. "Would you rather get mauled by zombies? A little perspective."

Will handed the backpack to Evanz. "Chuck it down after me, I'll catch it." He went up to the window and climbed out onto the window ledge. It was just about wide enough for him to stand. To any onlooker, Will would have seemed completely calm and brave. Inside though, he was scared. Scratch that, he was fucking terrified. It was easy being a badman in Dungeons and Dragons, or Chivalry, but in real life? This was different. He really could die. Taking a deep breath, the blonde launched himself off the ledge and into darkness. He hit the roof on the other side easily, rolled to soften the impact, and stood.

"It's ok dudes! Just jump, you'll be fine. Ish." He doubled over, coughing. The impact had knocked the wind out of him, and he'd probably have a massive bruise on his hip tomorrow, but it'd be alright. He hoped.

Aaron was next to jump, crashing into Will and knocking both of them to the ground. "Fuck!" He groaned, clutching his stomach.

"What was that?" The pair heard Evanz's voice in the darkness.

"Nothing. Will punched me in the stomach."

"You jumped onto me!"

"Good point."

Evanz turned back to Josh. "Well? You going next or am I?"

Josh looked out the window, then back at his friend. "You go. If you survive, I'll jump."

"Sounds like a fair compromise." Evanz gave him a small smile, then climbed out the window onto the ledge. He paused briefly to catch his breath before leaping into the blackness, colliding with the rooftop with a noise of pain, rolled, and stood, rubbing his shoulder where he had connected with the unforgiving roof.

"It's like landing on a mattress." He called up to Josh, and got only a curse in reply.

Josh wasn't a coward, not really, he just didn't want to throw himself into the unknown. He was afraid of that, at least. And zombies. Oh, and horror games. Not that much at all really. He was a little afraid of creepers, too. They may have been virtual monsters, but the ones from DasLisL's texture pack were absolutely terrifying.

"Josh! Chuck down the bag first!" Evanz called, interrupting his revere. Josh leant back inside the room and grabbed the bag, plastic sword, and frying pan, and threw them to his friends. There was a satisfying clang, accompanied by a "fuck" as the frying pan collided with someone.

Josh climbed back onto the windowsill and resumed his crisis.

"For god's sake man, just jump. It's not that far!" Will shouted, much to Josh's annoyance. Taking a deep breath, the man leapt off the windowsill and into the night. Will had been right, it wasn't that far to fall at all. He landed gracelessly on his side and sat up, groaning.

"That wasn't too bad, was it?" Aaron said, only a hint of mocking in his voice.

"Fuck all of you." Josh replied petulantly, before pushing himself into a standing position. The four of them looked around the rooftop. There didn't seem to be any way to get to another roof, and no way down made itself apparent. Evanz hurried over to the opposite side from where the group stood.

"Where should we go?" He asked, scanning the side for a way down. To his relief, a rusting, rickety metal ladder was attached to the wall with firm clasps. "Guys, over here! There's a ladder."

The others hurried over to join him, spotting the ladder and letting out a collective sigh of relief. "Well, what did they do in 'The Walking Dead'? They camped on the outskirts of town." Josh said, the rucksack flung over his shoulder. "We should do that."

"Yeah, because that worked out so well for them in the comic, didn't it?" Aaron noted sarcastically. "Maybe we should hide out somewhere. There's bound to be a place nearby where we can hide. What about the pub?"

"Dude, I watched Shaun of the Dead. That is not a good idea." Will pointed out, twirling the frying pan in his hand absentmindedly.

"The first thing we should do is get down off this fucking roof. We're not safe up here." Evanz said. He looked at the others. "Wait, am I the only one without anything? How am I supposed to defend myself?"

"Slice them up with your razor wit." Aaron told him, walking over to the ladder, the plastic sword held tightly in his hand. He moved over to the ladder and began to climb down. The others followed, clambering down until they were in a narrow alley that disappeared into blackness on both ends. Josh rubbed the back of his neck.

"We need to find somewhere quickly. It's getting cold, and we can barely see." He was met with a chorus of agreement, and the four survivors walked swiftly into the darkness, staying close together at all times. Despite their previous thoughts, the alley was not long at all, and soon opened out into the main street. They stopped in the shadows, just out of sight, and considered their next move.

"There's a house that's for sale just across the park. It's empty, I'm sure, since I've not seen anyone go in for a tour. Hopefully we'll be able to hide in there." Aaron whispered as he pointed to a small house on the corner of the street.

"We'll have to try and sneak up there, there's no fucking way we're going to defeat a horde of zombies with a plastic sword and a frying pan." Will said, gripping the aforementioned frying pan tightly in his dominant hand. He almost felt ridiculous, but it was better than nothing.

The four young men crept into the main street, keeping close to the wall, ducking into alcoves and anywhere that afforded some darkness. The zombies seemed to be classic film zombies: slow, shuffling, stupid. Once or twice they thought that one had spotted them, but they managed to reach the house without incident. Evanz and Will helped Aaron and Josh over the back fence, into the tangled wilderness that passed for a garden. The pair outside then climbed the fence themselves, the others pulling them into the overgrowth. The windows on both sides were boarded shut, but the back door seemed to only be secured by a simple rusted lock.

"Will? You know what to do." Josh gave him a look, and Will lifted the pan over his shoulder and swung it hard at the padlock. It sprang open, and Evanz looked back over the fence, making sure nothing had been attracted by the sound. Thankfully, none were close enough to have heard the racket.

The door opened easily, and they snuck inside. Aaron and Will pulled an empty, broken bookcase over to block the back door whilst Josh and Evanz attended to the front door. Josh dumped the rucksack in the centre of the room and, once the back door was barricaded, the plastic sword and frying pan joined it on the floor.

"Well, what the hell are we supposed to do now?" Josh said, having checked the lock and dragged a worn leather sofa in front of the main entrance.

"I guess we just wait it out until the army comes to help us." Evanz said.

"Has that helped any character in a film, book, or video game ever? The army isn't going to come any time soon. We need to find a way out of the country." Aaron pointed out. "We could try and contact Gubiak, or maybe Chris. There must be an evacuation plan somewhere!"

"Let's try and connect to the radio on my phone. They might have something." Will pulled his phone out of his pocket, miraculously still in one piece. The four were so focussed on trying to operate the connection on the phone, not one of them noticed the figure standing in the doorway, slowly shuffling towards them.


	2. Chapter 2

**How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse**

**Chapter Two- Hide**

**A/N – The author here with chapter two! Disclaimer: I don't own these guys. Slavery is illegal in this country. And in most countries, actually. **

Will looked over his shoulder just in time to see the zombie that was slowly shambling out of the kitchen. It moaned and lurched forward towards them, and Will grabbed the frying pan and swung it as hard as he could into the zombie's skull. When he pulled it away, there were small flecks of gross, decaying flesh stuck to it. Aaron shoved the corpse into the wall whilst Evanz tried to hit it with the plastic sword. The sword barely injured it at all, instead bending in half again. Josh and Aaron held the zombie's arms against the wall whilst Will bashed it repeatedly in the face with the pan until finally, it stopped twitching.

"What do we do? It might come back again." Evanz said, throwing the useless toy onto the ground.

Josh looked faintly disgusted by the odour coming from the zombie. "We should probably chuck it out a window or something. The ones upstairs facing the garden weren't boarded."

"Let's just hope there aren't any more in here. You guys take it upstairs and throw it out the window, me and Evanz will look for shit in the kitchen we can use. There's probably something here." Will instructed.

He and Evanz walked into the kitchen and were immediately gratified by a stand full of kitchen knives. On closer inspection, they were a little dull and the smaller ones were blunted, but there were two large knifes that were sharp to the touch. Will took one and passed it and handed it to Evanz.

"Aaron can have the other one." He grinned. "I'd give it to Josh, but…"

"Say no more." Evanz returned the smile. "There might be another frying pan in here he could use. That thing is fucking deadly."

Will walked into the living room and began sorting through the food they'd managed to bring with them. Evanz was about to head upstairs when Josh's familiar voice carry down the staircase.

"Um, guys? We have a situation…"

Josh and Aaron had hesitantly gone upstairs carrying the body between them. They entered something that could possibly have been a guest bedroom and walked over to the window. It took a while to force it open, but they managed to get the body out of the window.

A quiet but definite cough took their attention away from the window.

The thing they saw was not a zombie, but two girls, one around 18, the other about 14. They were related, that much was certain. They both had the same straight nose and sandy blonde hair. The younger one had eyes of a brilliant blue though, whereas her elder counterpart's eyes were a dark brown.

"Hi." Said the elder, giving an awkward wave. The child, who Aaron and Josh were assuming was the little sister, clung tightly to the older girl's leg.

"Um, guys? We have a situation…" Josh called, alerting the others to the… problem. Will and Evanz entered the room and looked at Josh in confusion.

"What? What's the situation?" Evanz asked.

Aaron pointed at the strangers. Again, the eldest waved. "Hi." She repeated.

"Um, who are they?" Will asked, looking back and forth between the two pairs.

"The name's Elise. This is my sister, Annabelle." The girl, Elise, said. Her hands rested protectively on her sibling's shoulder. Annabelle looked at them with her head cocked for a moment. Then she spoke in a voice that was excited, scared, and amazed at the same time.

"Rage. Hollow. Evanz. Fluke." She pointed at them each in turn. Elise tapped her arm.

"Don't point at people, Bells. It's rude." Elise flicked her hair out of her face as she looked back up into the faces of the four males. "Those names… oh, you're those gamers, on YouTube, right? Bells watches you all day."

The four shared a look of confusion. "So, you know who we are?" Bells shrugged.

"I only know you by your YouTube names. Not who you really are."

"Oh. Well, I'm Rage- Josh, Hollow is Aaron, Fluke is Will, and Evanz is, well, Evanz." Josh said, gesturing to his friends.

"So what are you guys doing here?" Will asked. It seemed odd to meet someone in real life who knew him on the internet, and especially in the midst of a zombie apocalypse.

"We're hiding out, same as you. Not sure where to go next." Elise rubbed her arm. "You don't want us to leave, do you?"

Aaron looked at her in surprise. "Oh, god, no! We wouldn't send you out there. It's fucking infested."

The girl looked at him in relief. "Thank god. We've got nowhere else to go."

Now safe in the knowledge that they would at least be staying for a while, Annabelle grinned widely. "It's awesome to get to meet you all. You guys must have a plan, right? I mean, you know what things don't work from video games, so all you need to do is the opposite of that! What could be easier?"

Will and Aaron shared an uneasy look, both knowing for certain that none of them had any idea what the fuck they were doing. But Evanz grinned back at the girl. "Yep. We're gonna all get out of this, you'll see. We know what to do, so just stick with us and you'll be fine. Ok?"

Bells nodded and Elise gave Evanz a grateful smile. She mouthed 'thank you' over her sister's shoulder.

"We do have food with us." She said. "Bells, go take it downstairs, ok? We'll be right down."

"Thanks. So, did you guys find any weapons in the kitchen?" Aaron turned to face Evanz.

"Mm. A couple kitchen knives and another pan. Nothing special." Evanz handed one of the knives to Aaron and the frying pan to Josh, who pouted.

"Why don't I get a knife?"

"Do you seriously have to ask that question?" Will raised an eyebrow.

Elise and Evanz chuckled, and the group of them traipsed down the stairs. Josh looked as if something had been bothering him for a while, and he remained silent for an unusually long time. Well, for him. After a while of silent organisation in the living room, he spoke.

"How did you guys get in? The back door still had a padlock on it when we arrived and the front door was locked too. The downstairs windows are all boarded shut. So how are you inside the house?"

Elise shrugged. "We climbed in the upstairs window."

All four of the men turned to look at her incredulously. "You what?" Aaron asked.

"We climbed in through the window. Did you guys not see the huge tree in the back yard? It was pretty sturdy."

Will and Josh shared an embarrassed look. None of them had noticed it. It probably would have been much stealthier to climb the tree, instead of bashing the padlock off with a frying pan. It occurred to them that frying pans had a lot more uses than they had previously thought. Maybe one day there'd be a video game were the protagonist only had a frying pan. If there was anyone left to make video games. Silence fell across the room once more.

"The silence will fall…" Elise muttered.

"When the question is asked." Josh finished, shooting her a grin. She returned the smile, then looked down at the piles of food she had laid out.

"Anyone else hungry? I could make… slightly melted cheese sandwiches." She said. The rest of the group nodded, and Elise picked up the loaf of bread and moist cheese and walked into the kitchen.

While she was gone, Annabelle spoke up for the first time in a while. "So, what is the plan?"

Josh, Aaron, and Will all looked pointedly at Evanz. This was all on him.

"Uh, we'll stay here for a while. Until we can find out about evacuation from the country." He smiled kindly. "The army will organise something for the survivors. Don't you worry."

"Yeah, you can be our Clementine." Josh chimed in, and Annabelle laughed at the Walking Dead reference.

"I have a feeling that there will be many opportunities for terrible zombie apocalypse clichés." Will murmured, earning a small smile from Aaron.

The room was quiet once more. It was odd, really, that in the midst of an apocalypse people could form bonds with anyone. They had barely known each other for an hour, yet they were already getting along like they'd known each other for years. Elise re-entered with six small sandwiches.

"Sweaty cheese sandwiches in slightly stale bread. Voila." She put down the plates on the floor and they all fell upon them, finishing them off in a matter of minutes. Annabelle yawned, and Will looked out through the small glass panel in the door.

"It's still dark. Maybe we should get some sleep." He said, stretching his arms. Then he stood. "I'll take the watch. I'm gonna go look out the window upstairs, I'll wake you guys if I see any zombies coming."

He received no protest, and everyone else watched him walk up the stairs. Elise and Annabelle lay down, the elder wrapping a protective arm around her sibling. The others also selected spots, on the floor, Evanz choosing to sleep on the couch pushed against the back door, whilst Aaron and Josh both slept on the floor beneath the windows. It wasn't long before they were all asleep.

* * *

Will leant against the wall, watching the horde outside the window. They covered the park area completely. It briefly crossed his mind that the army might assume that all the survivors had already left the city. Maybe… maybe they wouldn't come looking. He shivered, folding his arms and trying to ignore that thought. The weather had been warm for most of the day, but the temperature had dropped considerably now that the city was shrouded in darkness. It was typical in video games, changing the weather to reflect the sombre mood of the characters. Will almost smiled at that. He turned towards the door at the sound of two sets of footsteps coming up the stairs.

"Only us." He heard Aaron say, as he and Evanz entered the small room. Will ran a hand through his hair.

"Trouble sleeping?" He asked. The pair nodded. They stood in silence.

"Will, what if there is no evacuation plan?" Aaron asked, looking down at the floor.

"I wondered that too. But there must be one. There must be somewhere that hasn't been taken over." Will replied.

"But what if there isn't? What if we're stuck here with no way to contact anyone? We're fucking dead meat out here." Aaron said, finally meeting Will's eyes. Evanz cut in.

"Then we'll fight, and we'll survive. There's food here, and we have weapons." He said, gently patting his friend's arm.

"They survived that way for a long while in the Walking Dead." Will interjected. Aaron smiled slightly.

"This isn't a game, Will."

"I know. But it makes it a lot less terrifying to pretend that it is."

The three of them walked downstairs to the living room, to find that Josh, Elise, and Annabelle had all woken up. Josh and Elise both stood.

"We're going to make some breakfast, ok? We'll be right back." The two walked into the kitchen, Elise planting a last kiss on Annabelle's forehead, much to the teenager's embarrassment.

* * *

Josh sighed. "There isn't really much we can make without fire. What were you planning?"

Elise chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully. She looked through the things she'd brought through from the living room. Some bread, salami that only had one more day left in it, a carton of orange juice, and a carrot. She blew out a puff of air.

"Salami sandwiches? And carrot sticks. With orange juice." She said, turning to Josh. He looked at the ingredients for a moment, then shrugged.

"Sure. What can I do to help?"

"You can slice up the salami for me." She smiled.

"I feel like there's a sex joke in there somewhere, but I can't find it yet." He laughed, and Elise rolled her eyes, but still chuckled. She began cutting up the carrot into thin sticks, and hummed quietly while she worked. To his surprise, he recognised it as "Fiesta" by +Plus, one of the opening themes from Fairy Tail.

"You like Fairy Tail?" He asked in surprise. Elise turned to him with wide eyes.

"You know where that's from? Hell yeah, I fucking love Fairy Tail!" She pulled the shoulder down on her t-shirt to reveal a purple Fairy Tail tattoo on her left shoulder. "I can't believe you've heard of it. I've never met another fan before."

"You know what, Elise? Somehow, I think this little group is going to get on very well."

* * *

Josh and Elise returned to the group sat in the living room. Evanz was talking to Annabelle about Ni No Kuni, as she was explaining to him that she and her friend had dressed up as Ester and Votevanz for Halloween the previous year. Aaron and Will were talking about the possibility of going to the supermarket nearby and raiding it for food that hadn't already been looted. The food was set down on the floor and was divided equally amongst the six of them.

"So, Aaron and I were thinking that we should go get some more food." Will said, after breakfast had been eaten.

"Good idea. We've only got enough to last another four days, max. I'll come." Elise replied, gathering up the plate and glasses they'd found in the cupboard.

"Alright. Who else is going?" Evanz asked. Immediately everyone responded saying they would go.

"We can't all go!" Josh said. "There's no way we'd all get there and back alive."

Will thought for a moment, then spoke. "We should stay together. We can't survive independently. Think about it like this, in games every character has a specific role. The roles all connect, and all the roles have to be filled so we can stay alive."

"Good point. Will, Aaron, you guys are like the fighters." Evanz said. Elise nodded.

"And Evanz is the caring father figure." She added.

"Elise, you're the independent female character, and Bells is the brave kid." Aaron grinned.

"Wait, what am I then?" Josh asked, folding his arms.

"You provide the comic relief." Evanz said, patting him on the arm condescendingly. Josh glared, then shrugged.

"You know what? I'm cool with that."


	3. Chapter 3

**How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse**

**Chapter Three- Forage**

**A/N- The last two chapters have been a little on the depressing side, but I think this chapter is more lighthearted. Hopefully. Also, I've taken Rage's advice and decided to write the story I planned and just hope that you guys like it instead of constantly worrying about people's reactions to the story.**

"Ok, does everyone have a bag or a weapon?" Elise asked. Nods all round. Each member of the party was carrying some form of equipment to help on their mission to the supermarket.

"How do we get in and out without being seen?" Evanz asked, holding the kitchen knife tightly in his hand. "We need to hide ourselves from the zombies."

"We go ninja mode, of course." Elise smiled widely, and moved over to the sofa blocking the back entrance. "Someone help me move this thing, it's fucking heavy. How did you move it across here in the first place?"

"With incredible amounts of strength and skill." Aaron said, going over to help her.

"Plus, Aaron goes to the gym every fucking day." Josh told her. "He exploded a gym in Call of Duty once with the power of his crunches."

Elise raised a slender eyebrow. "Do I even want to know?"

"Probably not." Will laughed.

Elise and Aaron managed to shove the sofa far enough away from the door to make exiting possible. They all filed out into the back yard, Will and Evanz leading the way. Once they reached the fence, the pair bent down and linked their hands to allow the others a way over the fence. First Elise, then Josh, then Aaron, then Annabelle. After the others were all safe on the other side, Evanz and Will climbed over the fence and into the desolate street. There were no zombies, luckily, but the entire road was dirty and abandoned and covered in rubbish. It seemed like everyone was gone.

Elise grinned at the others, then did a shoulder roll to the corner of their current home, peering round the edge. The view of the park was terrifying. It was fairly light, so it was easy to see the decaying faces of the zombies. She pulled back in revulsion.

"There's a lot of them, and they're ugly as fuck." She whispered, as the others crept towards the corner as well. "Is there a back route that leads to the shop?"

Aaron nodded. "We can sneak round the alleyways, and we'll come out in the car park. From there we can get inside."

They walked in a tight group, Annabelle in the middle. Evanz and Will stood either side of her, Aaron leading them towards the supermarket, with Josh and Elise bringing up the rear.

"So far, ninja mode isn't very ninja-y." Josh pointed out. Aaron gave him a look, then dropped to the ground and rolled around the corner into a shadowy alley. It looked pretty damn cool, until they heard a quiet thump, and a whispered 'ouch'. Will grinned.

"My turn." He said, before doing a diving roll into the alleyway. He rolled almost to standing but bashed his head against the wall. "Fuck!" he said, rubbing his forehead. Aaron smiled widely.

"Faggot." he whispered.

Evanz was next, and he went for a backwards roll, but accidentally kicked a box and landed face first on the ground. Annabelle didn't even bother trying, she just walked round the corner, her hand pressed against her mouth to stifle the laughter. Elise shook her head.

"This is how you do it." She whispered. She shot Josh a grin and cartwheeled round the corner, but tripped over Aaron and fell onto Will. "Oow."

Josh burst into hysterical laughter at the pile of his friends in the entrance to the alley. Elise stood and brushed herself off. "Sorry, Will!" She offered him a hand, and he took it.

"Ninja mode didn't really work, did it?" He laughed quietly. "I think I punctured a lung."

"I'm not that fucking heavy!"

"Not the time, guys." Evanz chuckled, pushing himself up off the floor. Aaron laughed again.

"Never insult a girl's weight, Will. Rule one."

"Fuck you." Elise said, trying to look pissed off, but her frown split into a smile.

"Somehow I think we should try to make a little less noise." Annabelle whispered, drawing the entire group's attention to her. The teenager was quietly and quickly walking backwards, and she stepped behind Evanz. A zombie slowly shuffled past the entrance to the alleyway and the six survivors pressed themselves against the wall, holding their breath. It looked almost as if the shambling stiff was about to turn towards them, but it merely scratched its stomach and wandered on. They breathed a sigh of relief.

"That was way too fucking close." Will muttered.

"Maybe we should try and be quieter until we get to the shop." Evanz murmured, and he received nods of agreement.

They travelled in silence the rest of the way, until the alley spilled them out into the huge car park of the supermarket. It was still very full. It seemed most of the survivors had gotten out without their vehicles. Or the owners of the cars were already dead… or living… or whatever the zombies counted as.

"I've just had a thought." Josh said, keeping his voice low.

"A rare occurrence." Evanz muttered.

"Shut up, man! I was going to say, how the fuck are we supposed to get inside without alerting the whole horde? D'you think the doors will be locked?"

"You know, for once in his life, Josh has a valid point. How do we get in? Is there a back door?" Will asked. Aaron chewed his lip in thought.

"There might be one into the storeroom. It'll probably be by the bins. It always is, isn't it?"

"So what are we going to do once we're inside?" Annabelle whispered.

"Let's get inside first, we can talk properly then." Elise told her. She smiled at the others. "Ninja mode, activate."

She dropped to her stomach and crawled beneath the cars in the row next to them, towards the back of the shop. The men shared an incredulous look, then shrugged, leaping and rolling and crawling over and under the cars. Annabelle stared at them. Were these really the people she'd idolised? Actually, yeah, this seemed like something they'd do. She walked straight down the car park, keeping close to the cars. Looking around, she noted the absence of any zombies. Oh well. At least the car park ninjas looked like they were having fun.

Reaching the back wall of the supermarket, Elise scanned for a door. Praise be, there was a slightly ajar metal door just next to some bins. How had Aaron known?

The others had made it all the way across the cars by this point, and Josh and Will crept up either side of the girl and jabbed her in the side. She jumped away and span so fast she almost gave herself whiplash.

"You fucking assholes! You scared the shit out of me!" She glared at them, her dark brown eyes glinting furiously, but they just laughed. Well, Will laughed. Josh did his typical "maniacal Rage evil laugh". Trademark.

"We have to make fun wherever we can in this situation. Don't take it personally." Josh grinned.

Elise rolled her eyes, turning her back on the grinning pair. She beckoned to Aaron, Evanz, and Annabelle, who quickly walked over to join them.

"There's a metal door over there that's slightly open. We could probably get in through there." Elise pointed to it, and Aaron smirked.

"Told you it'd be by the bins."

The six of them looked around the car park, making sure there were none of the undead shambling around. Once they had slipped inside the dark, cool storeroom that hid behind the metal door, Aaron rubbed the brown stubble that dotted his chin. "Did any of us think how we'd get out of here and into the actual shop? This room is pretty small."

The group was hemmed in on every side by shelves of taped up boxes.

"I don't think we need to get out, there's plenty of food in here." Evanz told him. He flicked his hair out of his eyes. It was already getting far too long, and the apocalypse had only started yesterday. Elise and Annabelle dropped the two rucksacks they'd brought with them into the centre of the room and pulled the frying pans and kitchen knives out of them to make plenty of space for the food.

"Just put in as much as we can, but make sure we have plenty of water and shit to drink." Elise said, grabbing a box and tearing it open.

"Water _and _shit? Sounds a bit gross to me." Aaron replied, taking a box off the opposite shelf.

"Oh, shut up. You know what I mean." The blonde laughed, throwing boxes at the others until everyone had something to do.

They worked quietly for a while, before Will sighed. "This is so boring!"

"What can we do? We have to get food." Evanz said, reasonably.

"Let's make this a little more fun." Aaron grinned at the others. He cleared his throat, then began to sing loudly and deeply.

"She says we've gotta hold on to what we got…"

"Cause it doesn't make a difference if we make it or not! We've got each other, and that's a lot for love…" Josh joined in, and the two of them grinned at the others. The group stared at them in silence, and then, all at once:

"We'll give it a shot!  
Woaahhh we're halfway there  
Wooooahhh livin' on a prayer!  
Take my hand and we'll make it elsewhere  
Woooahhh livin' on a prayer!"

They sang loudly and out of tune, but it made them laugh. Whilst they sang, they packed the food into their bags.

"Tommy's got his six string in hock  
Now he's holding in what he used…"

Will jumped up and started playing the air guitar, exaggerating his arm movements and flicking his blonde hair around. Evanz laughed, moving to stand behind him and play the keyboard.

"To make it talk - so tough, it's tough  
Gina dreams of running away…"

Josh took on the role of bassist, Aaron became the mullet-wearing drummer, Elise grabbed an imaginary microphone and also abandoned her packing duties.

"When she cries in the night  
Tommy whispers baby it's okay, someday…"

Annabelle tried to look embarrassed by the 'adults' dancing and playing imaginary instruments in front of her, but she couldn't help but laugh. The chorus came around again and they started belting out the lyrics and dancing as best they could in the cramped room. As they hit the final note, strummed the last imaginary chord, and threw the pretend drumsticks in the air, they burst out laughing.

"A sing-a-long to lift our spirits." Evanz laughed. "So what shall we do now?"

"Let's play I-Spy!" Elise suggested. Will raised an eyebrow.

"You do realise this room is tiny right? It would be the quickest game ever." He said. Elise shrugged.

"It'll pass the time. I'll go first! Ok, I spy with my little eye something beginning with B." She grinned.

"Box." Aaron guessed, and Elise deflated.

"Ok, Will was right. What should we do instead?"

"Well, I think we're just about done here! Maybe we should head back to the house." Annabelle suggested.

"I'm slightly worried that the most sensible person in our party is 14 years old." Aaron said, and Evanz laughed.

"Maybe we should be hiding behind Bells instead of protecting her!"

"Nope, I think you should protect me. I'll stay in the middle of the group, thanks." She tucked a lock of blonde hair behind her ear and stood up. "You'll have to carry your weapons, we don't have any space in the bags anymore." The teen swung one of the bags over her shoulder and staggered under the weight. "This will definitely last us a while!"

Evanz picked up his knife, as did Aaron. Josh frowned as Will handed him one of the frying pans.

"I don't see why I'm stuck with this pan. I could totally handle a knife."

"You're lucky we're even trusting you with a frying pan." Will told him, handing the second rucksack to Elise.

The group pushed the door open wide enough for them to slip out and they walked into the car park.

"Maybe we should look for somewhere else to hide out, somewhere slightly less zombie infested than the park." Evanz pointed out. "If we can find a place closer to here, we wouldn't have to carry so much food all at once."

This suggestion received nods of agreement from the rest of the group and so they kept an eye out for places to hide out near the supermarket. They walked down the side of the car park, keeping close to the wall. There didn't seem to be any of the undead milling around, but better safe than sorry.

"There's a pretty big house over there we could go to." Aaron pointed at a red brick house that was just across the street from the shop. He could just about make out a brick wall, overgrown with moss and weeds.

The six survivors used the cars next to them to climb over the car park wall, and they dropped down into the street.

Much to the surprise of the four zombies that stood there, staring at them. The corpses growled, and moaned, and shambled towards them.


	4. Chapter 4

**How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse**

**Chapter Four- Fight**

**A/N Gahh this chapter was so freaking hard to write! I can't do action scenes! As always, feedback is greatly appreciated **** Also, so much evil foreshadowing is happening in this chapter you don't even know. Final note, I have gone back to my original plan (I think I said that before) so please disregard the author's note at the end of chapter 2. It is no longer accurate to the story…**

"Oh shit. Oh fuck. This is not good." Josh said, backing up to the wall.

"You think we haven't worked that out?" Aaron hissed.

Close up, the zombies were disgusting. Their skin was mouldy and crusted, a pale grey covered in splotches of green and brown. Their teeth were rotted and yellow, but looked sharp and dangerous.

Each person gripped their weapon tightly and pressed themselves against the car park wall. Annabelle ducked between Elise and Evanz, and the zombies shuffled closer. One lurched towards Will and he smacked it in the face with the frying pan.

The zombie's nose broke and sprayed pus over his shirt. It fell back, moaning, and suddenly the other zombies all fell into action.

Aaron ducked under the groping arms of a creature and tackled it to the ground. It fell on top of him and tried to bite his ankle but he slammed his heel into the monster's forehead. The zombie's head snapped back on impact and its forehead caved in. Aaron shoved its legs off of him and kicked its upper half away, rolling out from underneath it and up on to his knee. Evanz helped him to his feet. Meanwhile Will bashed the floored zombie on the back of the head, and it stopped squirming for a moment.

And then the fight descended into chaos.

Evanz stabbed a zombie in the eye with his knife and shoved it back. The corpse stumbled away but came forward again, trying to bite his arm. Evanz ripped his arm away from its gaping maw and kicked at its legs. He moved backwards, slashing wildly at the thing with his knife. With one wide slice he decapitated the zombie, sending clumpy blood splashing towards him. He managed to avoid most of it, but some hit his shoulder and he shook it off in disgust. Josh ran up and kicked the head away as the body crumpled.

"Not bad, man." Josh said, rubbing his face.

"Duck!" They heard Aaron yell, as he came running towards them. The pair ducked and Aaron jabbed his knife into the face of the zombie that was behind them.

Meanwhile Elise and Will had been pushed back to back, Elise, deprived of a weapon, repeatedly kicking one zombie in the stomach and shoving it away as it advanced on her. Will was battering the zombie Aaron had first downed. He brushed his hair out of his eyes and kicked it in the knee. The bone cracked and the zombie fell. The blonde straddled the zombie, beating it about the head with the back of the frying pan. Evanz ran to him, arm outstretched, holding the knife which was now covered in zombie flesh and lumpy, clotted blood.

"Will! Decapitate it!" Evanz gave his knife to his friend and Will pressed the blade through the zombie's neck, slicing through it cleanly.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the street, Josh was fighting one of the two remaining zombies. He knocked it under the chin with the frying pan and kneed it in the chest sending it tumbling backwards. He turned to see Elise helping Will up as the zombie she had kicked to the ground reared up and grabbed her arms, gripping them behind her back, trying to take a bite out of her shoulder. She twisted to avoid it at the last second but the thing still had a grip on her and she couldn't move. The long sleeves of her shirt tore at the seams that ran along her shoulder.

Before anyone could register what was happening, Josh barrelled into the side of the zombie, smashing it into the wall and firing a punch into its cheek. The decaying face gave way and when Josh pulled his hand back bits of zombie flesh were stuck to his knuckles. Aaron picked up his knife and ran over, jabbing the zombie in the neck and tearing its throat open. He yanked the zombie's head off and threw it away, whilst Josh hurried over to Elise.

"Are you ok?" He asked worriedly. She pointed to her neck, showing that its teeth had luckily not managed to break through her skin.

"I'm fine, thanks to you. You saved my life." She hugged him tightly for a moment, then pulled away, turning to look at the others.

Annabelle kicked the final zombie in the ribs, then kneed it in the groin, hard. She shoved it away and Evanz wrapped an arm around its waist and threw it to the ground. Will handed him the knife and Evanz knelt on the zombie's back, using the knife to cut the thing's head off.

Elise ran over to her little sister, checking her for bites and cuts. "Bells! Are you alright?" She asked, hugging her sister tight.

"Don't worry sis. Evanz protected me." Annabelle grinned and Elise smiled at him thankfully.

"Thank you so much." She said.

The six of them stood there, covered in dirt and bits of decaying zombie flesh, bruised, battered, but alive.

"Quick, everyone check for bites." Aaron said, and the survivors checked themselves all over.

"I'm clear." Will announced.

"Me too." Josh said, and Elise sounded her affirmation.

"None here." Evanz told him.

"Or here." Annabelle rubbed her arms thankfully. "That was way too close."

"Let's get inside before any more zombies appear." Evanz said. They hurried over to the wall and found that although it was much higher than the fence, the mortar had crumbled away in some places so much that there were hand and foot-holds all the way to the top.

Once all of them were inside the walled garden, they went over to the back door. Trying the handle, they were relieved to find it was unlocked. Will stepped in first, frying pan settled over his shoulder so that he could immediately whack anything that leaped out at them. Nothing did, in the living room at least.

They filed into the room, and looked around. Furniture was overturned and the entire place looked like it had been swept up in a hurricane.

"I'll go upstairs to check out the other rooms." Elise walked over to the staircase and Josh walked after her.

"I'll come too." He said, and she gave him a grateful smile.

After they'd gone, Aaron turned to face the group.

"I'm not the only one who sees that, am I?" He asked. The others shook their heads. "They're the only ones who don't, aren't they?" This time, the group responded with nods.

* * *

The pair returned to the living room in the centre of the house. "Nothing. We're all clear." Josh told the others, who sighed in relief.

"So, what do we do know?" Annabelle asked, but her question was met with only silence.

The quiet was suddenly broken by Will's phone going off at full volume.

Everyone jumped and glared at him. "Fucking hell man! What the shit?" Josh said angrily.

"It's Gubiak!" Will told them, answering the call and putting him on loudspeaker. "Guby! Are you ok?"

"No! There's a fucking zombie apocalypse going on!" Gubiak yelled into the phone. Screams and cries could be heard through the speaker. "It's crazy. Have they reached England yet?"

"The entirety of Leeds is fucking deserted. We're stuck here." Aaron said. They heard Gubiak curse loudly and the sound of his phone hitting the ground sounded loudly.

"Aaron? You're ok?" Gubiak yelled, having picked up his phone again.

"Yeah. Me, Will, Josh, and Evanz are all here. We're ok for now."

"Thank fuck." Gubiak sighed. "No one else will answer their phones. Not Jake, not Tyde, not Peace. I was so worried. I thought you were all dead." The sounds of his running feet could be heard through the phone once he finished the sentence. The sounds stopped. "Ok, I think I'm safe for the moment. These things are everywhere, there's fire nearby. I can hear the people dying. Everything has gone to shit. The government has collapsed. I have no way of ge- shit!" He was cut off mid word by a shout and a thump. There was a dull splat.

"Guby? Guby!"

"I'm ok. It tried to get me, but I'm fine."

"You've got to get to the coast! Try to find a boat." Will called.

"And go where? It's worldwide. There's nowhere that's safe." Gubiak told them, and the group shared a look of fear and hopelessness.

"Just stay alive. Try and get to here." Josh said. "It'll be alright, man!"

"I- Fuck, signal's g- shi- NO!" There was a final scream, and the line went dead.

They stared at the phone, Elise covering her hand with her mouth. Evanz put his head in his hands, looking away from the phone. Aaron's mouth moved, trying to form words, but none came. Annabelle buried her head in Elise's shoulder and Josh just sat, staring at nothing now. No one knew what to say.

Will leapt up, threw the phone at the wall and brushed furiously at his face. "FUCK!" He screamed. "What is this shit? The infection has spread worldwide, and now Gubiak's-"

"Don't." Evanz whispered. "Please. Don't."

The blonde collapsed to the floor. "What do we do?"

They sat in silence, too numb even to cry. Their first loss. The first casualty of the apocalypse. Annabelle was the first to move.

"Let's have a funeral. I know we don't have a body, and we don't have anything to bury in his place, but we should have a memorial. For Gubiak." She said, standing.

And that's what they did. As day faded into evening, they went into the back garden and stood in a semi-circle. The group stood in silence and thought. They thought about the fun things and the happy times, and tried to ignore the bad. They weren't sure how long they stood there in silence, but it was long enough. Then the group of survivors sat, sharing stories about the things they'd done with Gubiak, the games they'd played and the conversation's they'd had. They told Elise what he had been like: a crazy, funny, brilliant friend who'd played games with them, and had screwed them over, and how they'd screwed him over in return. How they'd laughed at his misfortune in games of Worms, and how he'd helped them play Dungeons and Dragons on their first ever story.

They talked late into the night, and they laughed, and they smiled.

And then, when they decided to sleep, Aaron went upstairs to keep watch over the group, and keep them safe. Whilst the five dirty, battered survivors rested, Aaron watched the streets around the house, and closed his eyes briefly.

"No more." He muttered. "No more death. I promise." And he opened his eyes, looking up into the moonlit sky, and he smiled. "Goodbye, friend."

**A/N Now that you probably hate me, I'd like to ask for feedback once again **


	5. Chapter 5

**How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse**

**Chapter Five- Play**

**A/N Be warned! Filler ahead! Sorry this chapter took so long, I was attacked by writers block and emotions. I decided to write a slightly more light-hearted chapter after murdering Gubiak. Apologies for that. All of you asking, no. Gubiak is not coming back. Mainly because I don't know how to characterise him. You can imagine him in the story if you want.**

Josh sighed. It had been three days since their trip to the supermarket and the death of Gubiak, and they hadn't done anything since. The six of them had stayed in the house, only speaking occasionally.

"We have to break out of this silence." Josh announced. "We can't stay like this forever. We need to do something."

The others looked up at him. It was true, they did need to bring some life back into their group. Something, anything to break the spell.

"Well, what do you propose?" Elise asked, looking up from Annabelle's hair. She'd found a few hair bands in a side pocket of her own backpack, and was plaiting her sister's long blonde hair so it wouldn't get in the way.

"I don't know. Something." Josh pushed his glasses up his nose and leaned back against the wall. Evanz stood up.

"Well, I'm going to go upstairs and look around, to see if I can find something for us to do." He said, flipping his hair out of his eyes. "I'll be back in a minute."

A few moments passed in silence once Evanz left the room, each person doing something mundane and repetitive to distract themselves from the awkward tension that had settled over the last few days.

"I think there were little kids who lived here." Evanz called down the stairs, his voice cutting through the silence. "I found some stuff scattered around. The family must have left in a hurry."

He walked back into the living room, carrying two open boxes of Lego. His lips curved up into a half smile. "Anyone up for a few rounds of Quick Build Challenge?" He asked.

The others stared at him in stunned silence. "That may be the stupidest and most brilliant idea ever." Aaron said, shaking his head with a grin.

"I'm up for it." Will grinned, and Josh nodded.

"I've always wanted to be in an episode of Quick Build!" Annabelle smiled excitedly. Elise looked around at everyone in confusion.

"Ok, I don't sit on YouTube all day like my sister, so you'll have to explain. What the fuck is Quick Build?" she asked. Annabelle glared at her.

"I've told you about it like a thousand times!" She said indignantly.

"I wasn't listening." Elise told her matter-of-factly, earning another glare from the fourteen year old.

"Quick Build is where I give four people a topic and 12 minutes to make something to do with that topic. We usually do it in Minecraft, but Lego will do." Josh explained, smiling. "Then the viewers vote on whose build was the best."

"Well, I think I'll judge instead of participate, thanks." Elise returned his grin.

"No biased judging!" Evanz said. If there was anyone who'd have a good knowledge of biased voting, it was Evanz.

"Vote Evanz." Annabelle muttered, earning a laugh from Aaron and a grin from Will. Evanz sighed.

"Even in a zombie apocalypse, I cannot escape it."

Elise blinked. "I'm fairly sure I'm missing something here, but oh well. Josh, give the topic!" She handed everyone a large green Lego base sheet then sat back on her heels whilst Josh decided on a topic.

Josh thought for a moment, tapping his chin. Then his eyes lit up and he smiled. "Ok, today's topic is… zombie apocalypse! 3, 2, 1, go! 12 minutes on the clock!" He looked at his watch, noting the time. Then he stood, offering Elise a hand up. "Now's the time when I go around, mess up the contestant's builds, and make fun of them."

"Sounds perfect. For you, that is." She laughed.

The pair walked to Aaron, Josh staring down at his friend's build, tilting his head in confusion. "I have no idea what the fuck he's doing." Josh said, pushing his glasses up onto the bridge of his nose. Aaron appeared to be placing black blocks in a circle on his green base.

"Fuck you, man! This is gonna look good once it's done!" Aaron laughed, filling in the circle with more black and grey blocks. Elise knelt down for a closer look.

"Is it going to look like anything related to the topic? Because right now it just looks like a black and grey circle." She said. He elbowed her gently in the side.

"You wait. You'll understand once it's done!"

The host and the judge moved on to the next build, Will's, and peered over his shoulder to get a good look at what he was making.

"Pixel art? Is that even possible with Lego?" Josh asked, and Will shrugged.

"Probably not. I thought I'd give it a go anyway." The builder flashed a grin then returned his attention to the build. "Are you going to try and dick me over?"

"Why would you even suggest such a thing?"

"Because you're a dick."

"I'm offended!" Josh feigned distress, and Elise laughed.

"Don't worry, it's endearing." Will finished.

"Oh. Well, at least that's something."

They moved on again, going to check out Evanz's build. Josh stared at it, stared some more, opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it again. Elise finally spoke up.

"How did you build so much in…" She took hold of Josh's wrist and looked at his watch. "Four fucking minutes?!"

Evanz shrugged with a grin. "Lots and lots of practice on Quick Buld. 'Vote Evanz' became a thing for a reason."

"Ok, that's the second time 'Vote Evanz' has been mentioned. I have to ask. What does it mean?" Elise asked. Evanz shuddered.

"You don't want to know. You really don't."

He had built the bottom floor of a house, split into three rooms. There were blocks placed inside the house, presumably signifying furniture. Half a staircase lead up to second floor that was just beginning.

Josh shook his head. "Fucking weird, man." They moved over to the final build, Annabelle's.

She was building a small statue of a person, a girl, from what the adults could see.

"Who's that?" Josh asked, bending down to get a better look.

"You'll see. Hopefully. I'm making this from memory so it might not look exactly right." Annabelle answered.

He nodded and looked down at his watch. "6 minutes left!" This announcement was met with general sounds of 'oh shit'. He cackled evilly and Elise raised an eyebrow. He shrugged and grinned. "It's the patented Rage evil laugh. No one can defeat my evil laughing skills!"

Elise smirked. "I wouldn't be so sure about that if I were you."

"Are you challenging me?" He asked.

"Get a room." Will muttered, just loud enough for them to hear. Aaron and Evanz laughed, and Elise flushed bright red in embarrassment. Josh coughed pointedly and adjusted his glasses.

"If I could do Rage interference properly right now your build would so be getting destroyed." He shot Will a glare, but the recipient just laughed, noticing that Josh's cheeks were ever so slightly red.

Josh and Elise both sat down to watch the builds progressing.

"Josh, isn't this when you usually go off on a tangent about a random story and make shitloads of bad puns?" Will asked, working on what appeared to be a shirt for his pixel art person.

"My puns are part of the entertainment!" He said defensively.

"Yeah, just like your intros." Annabelle replied with a grin. Evanz laughed.

"One day, one of your videos is just going to be a 20 minute intro full of bad puns and procrastination." Evanz told him.

"What is this, national make fun of Rage day?" Josh asked, folding his arms.

"Every day is national make fun of Rage day." Aaron said.

"Well that's just not fair!" Josh complained, and Elise patted him on the arm condescendingly.

"You provide the comic relief, remember?" She said, and Josh sighed.

"The pains I go through for my job. Three minutes left, by the way."

Aaron looked down at his build and burst out laughing. "Oh my fucking god, it's the bloody lighthouse all over again."

Will looked at his friend's build. "What the hell is it supposed to be?"

"It was meant to be a frying pan, but it's sort of… dented." He collapsed into laughter again.

Evanz turned to look at the build, then shot Aaron a quizzical look. "How does that in any way resemble a frying pan? It looks like you sneezed a load of black and grey blocks into a weird half-oval."

"I don't even know, man. I think I was just placing blocks randomly and not even looking at what I was doing." Aaron told them.

"Not really a good tactic in a building game." Will laughed.

"Probably not. Both of yours actually look like something, mine looks like someone shit on a Lego base!" Aaron shook his head and started placing more blocks to try and repair what looked like a crater in his frying pan.

"If your shit looks like that, I'd recommend going to a doctor." Will said.

"I wouldn't go to you, if your Surgeon Simulator video was anything to go by!" Aaron shot back.

"I saved some people's lives!" He said, trying to be serious, but allowing the grin to creep onto his face.

"And ended a lot more." Evanz chuckled.

"Are you guys finished nattering? You have one minute left!" Josh told them, and the three all returned to their work, putting the finishing touches on their builds.

"10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, stop!" He said, and everyone put down their Lego.

"So, vote one is Aaron's… what the fuck is this?" Josh asked, and Aaron started laughing again.

"A frying pan."

Josh and Elise both stared at it for a second. It had a sort of frying pan shape, with a very stubby handle and a lump in the middle of the pan. "I guess you could see it… sort of…" Elise said, tilting her head.

"If you close your eyes and imagine a frying pan." Josh joked.

"I like to think of it as a frying pan that has been used to batter a zombie to death. A steel zombie with laser eyes." Aaron laughed, and Elise nodded.

"I can see it easier with that image in mind. So that's vote one, right?" She asked.

"Uh huh. And now, to vote two!" They moved to Will's build, and kneeled down to get a proper look.

"Is that… a pixel art Lee?" Josh asked, sounding impressed.

"It was supposed to be. They didn't have the right colour Lego for the skin." Will said, shaking his head. "Racist Lego."

"It's pretty good, since Lego is not exactly designed for 2D art." Elise smiled. "I think it looks cool."

"Thanks. He's kinda squished and flat, but he'll do."

"Vote two is a pixel art of Lee from the Walking Dead. Awesome. Ok, next! Vote three!" Josh said, pulling Elise over to Evanz's house.

"Wasn't a house the first thing you built on Quick Build?" Josh asked. "That was the first episode of Quick Build I made."

"Yep. And I thought I'd go back to it."

"So how is this related to a zombie apocalypse?" Elise asked.

"It's a model of the house we're in! Look, here's the kitchen, dining room, and living room, that block is the sofa, and that one's the oven. Then there's the upstairs, with the two bedrooms and the bathroom." Evanz pointed at each thing as he explained it, and the judge nodded.

"That's really cool!" She grinned. "I like the details."

They moved to look at the final build, Annabelle's. It was a small statue of Clementine, also from the Walking Dead.

"Is that Clementine?" Josh asked. "That's really accurate." He nodded approvingly.

Annabelle grinned. "Well, I've always wanted a chance to impress you on Quick Build. This isn't exactly what I'd envisioned, but…" She shrugged. "It'll suffice."

Elise grinned. "I have a feeling Annabelle has an advantage. She knows how much I love the Walking Dead."

Josh laughed. "So vote four is a statue of Clementine. Ok, Judge, it is time to make your decision!"

"Hmm…" Elise thought for a moment, tapping her chin. "I think I'm going to have to go with vote two. Lee is a great character, and pixel art must be hard to do in Lego. Will made a pretty decent hash of it."

"So the winner is Will! With one vote to none!" Josh announced, and Will threw his hands up.

"Yes!"

As they were packing away the Lego, Aaron moved over to Evanz.

"Thanks man. That was just what we needed to get us going again."


	6. Chapter 6

**How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse**

**Chapter Six- Prepare**

**A/N- Guys! I've finally organised the story! You know what this means? I KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN! I bet you're all proud. As always, feedback is appreciated!**

"We need arms."

"We have arms, Will. They're attached to our torsos." Evanz replied, grinning at the blond.

"Shut up. You know what I mean. Weapons. Stuff to protect ourselves." Will said, punching his friend on the shoulder.

"Ouch. That hurt both my arm and my soul." Evanz feigned deep sadness.

"Dick." Will muttered, and Evanz laughed.

"Will's right," Aaron interjected, before they could speak again, "We need to go and get some weaponry. Hmm… we could try going to the Lakeland nearby. They'll have knives and things there that we could take. It's just a few streets away."

"Sounds like a plan. I'll go tell the others." Evanz stood and went downstairs. The three of them had been sat upstairs keeping watch over the area around the house. Meanwhile, Elise, Josh, and Annabelle had been making breakfast.

They stood in the kitchen, using the bread they'd taken from the supermarket and some tins of baked beans to try and make beans on toast, without a functioning toaster or indeed any way to cook the beans.

"Come to think of it, we didn't really plan this out very well, did we?" Elise asked.

"Probably not." Annabelle replied, resting her elbows on the counter and placing her chin in her hands.

"Let's just make sandwiches." Josh said, sighing in exasperation. "We have some ham, I think."

Elise nodded and started making the sandwiches. After a moment, Josh began speaking again. She looked up whilst he talked.

"So, how come you guys were alone when we found you? I never thought to ask before."

She looked down at her hands, which had suddenly stopped making the food. "Our… our mum was bitten. She went berserk and tried to kill both of us. So I took Annabelle and ran away as fast as we could." Elise paused for a moment, and Josh looked away.

"Oh. What about your dad?" He asked.

"He left when I was two, just before Annabelle was born. Don't know where he is, and I don't care. He's a fucking asshole, whatever he's doing."

Josh adjusted his glasses, unsure of what to say to that. "I… um…"

Elise shot him a grin. "Wow. I left Josh speechless. Now that is a sign of the apocalypse."

"You've been talking to Aaron too much. He's teaching you how to insult me."

"Well, why not take the opportunity to learn from the master?"

At that moment, Evanz entered the kitchen to see Annabelle giggling, Elise laughing, and Josh pouting.

"Do I even want to know what you were just talking about?" He asked, raising an eyebrow, although it was hard to see under his unruly mop of dark brown hair.

"Elise was insulting me." Josh pushed his bottom lip out and Evanz grinned, then turned to face the laughing blonde.

"We have taught you well, young grasshopper."

"I have much to learn, master." Elise curled one hand into a fist and placed it against the other palm, and bowed jokingly.

"Screw you guys." Josh muttered, picking up the sandwiches and carrying them into the living room, where Aaron and Will were waiting.

"What's up with you?" Will asked the grumpy-faced Josh.

"You're teaching Elise how to insult me. It's not fair."

"Dude, I can feel the fucking sexual tension from here." Aaron said, grinning.

"Oh, shut the fuck up you douche." Josh sat on the floor, face slightly flushed with embarrassment.

"I've told you before, insult me if you like, but DON'T. CALL. ME. A. DOUCHE. It hurts. Deeply." Aaron replied.

"You fight like an old married couple." Will told them.

Evanz, Elise, and Annabelle walked into the living room and joined the three already in there. Elise flopped down onto the sofa next to Aaron.

"So, what shall we do today?" She asked.

"Well, me, Will, and Evanz were saying that we should go to and find some weapons. I suggested going to Lakeland, since they'll probably have some stuff to bash and stab the zombies with." Aaron said, running a hand through his hair.

"Good idea. Let's head out today." Josh said, standing. "Elise and Annabelle haven't got any weapons."

The six of them picked up the two rucksacks and their weapons, and headed to the back door. Creeping outside, they moved over to the wall where Aaron and Evanz bent down, linking their hands to provide a step up. Will climbed to the top of the wall, checking that the street was clear. One zombie, just below them. He dropped onto its head and the corpse crumpled beneath him. Will kept it pinned as the others climbed to join him one by one. Aaron used his knife to cut off the head of the trapped zombie and he threw it away.

"None on this street, as far as I can tell. They seem to stick to more open areas, and in large groups." Evanz told them.

Aaron nodded. "The shop is down that street, round the corner, and across the roundabout. We should be able to get there."

"Maybe we should be quieter this time." Annabelle muttered, and the others had to agree.

They made it to the roundabout, keeping quiet and staying close to the walls, ducking into alcoves when zombies came near. But when they reached the roundabout, Josh cursed quietly.

"How the fuck do we get past them?" He hissed, pointing at the horde of zombies swarming the central island of the roundabout.

"Let's see if we can get around the outside without alerting them." Elise murmured, and she dropped to the ground, crawling through the grassy verge next to the road. This time, no one looked at her strangely for it, and they all followed suit. They made it to the next road without being spotted, and they saw that the Lakeland was just over the road.

As the group shifted to their knees, a handful of zombies shambled towards the road in front of them. Annabelle looked at the island and quickly counted the zombies. 12, 13, 14, 15. 15 zombies, plus the three that were walking closer.

"There are too many of them." She whispered, a hint of desperation in her voice. "What now?"

"We get up, and run. Lock ourselves inside the shop and arm ourselves, then jump out and fight our way back." Will muttered. "Should be alright."

"Well, even though that plan is stupidly dangerous, we haven't got anything else." Josh whispered, and the others agreed.

"Let's go then." Will said. They crept towards the edge of the grass, then leapt up and sprinted to the door of Lakeland. The zombies turned and slowly shuffled after them. By the time the corpses reached the door, it was shut and barricaded, with the six survivors safely inside.

"Well, stage one of the plan was executed to perfection." Aaron said, drily, and they turned away from the door to the rest of the shop. And that was when they noticed that there were zombies already inside.

They dived into action, attacking the decaying figures.

Will bashed one in the side of the head, knocking it into the shelf. It collapsed, and he kicked it in the head, then stamped on its neck, trying to snap it. The things neck caved under Will's foot and he ripped its head clean off. Kicking the head away, he covered his nose and mouth to keep the smell away. He retched, and ran back to the door.

Evanz cut off the hand of a zombie that reached for him, grabbing the arm and kicking the zombie in the stomach so that the monster fell backwards, and Evanz stumbled the other way, still holding the arm. He winced in disgust and threw the arm away, before kneeling down to slit the zombies throat. 2 down.

Aaron ducked under the swinging arms of a zombie and rammed his shoulder into its side, tackling it to the floor. He punched it square in the face. The decaying flesh collapsed under his fist and there was a sickening sound as the brain was squashed. Aaron took his knife and cut cleanly through its neck, throwing the head away from him. The stench made his eyes water and he stood, hurrying away.

Josh jumped to the side at the last moment to avoid the gnashing teeth of a zombie. He kicked it in the back of the knee and it fell forward. Josh ran to the other side of the aisle and gave the shelf a massive shove, ramming into it again and again until it toppled over, crushing the zombie and sending clumps of blood and pus spraying into the air. He stumbled back, wiping his face clear of grime.

Elise grabbed one zombies arm, dragging it over her hip and throwing it to the ground. She ran to a shelf on the wall, looking for something to use to decapitate it. As she turned back round, clutching a knife in her hand, she saw it had stood and it swiped at her. She jerked back and avoided the worst of its attack, its fingernails almost scraping her cheek. Elise kicked it in the face and sent it stumbling backwards. She straddled the fallen figure and pushed the knife through its neck, beheading it.

Annabelle darted past the final zombie, diving past it and whipping round, before slamming into the back of it and pushing it over. The teenager ran to the shelf and grabbed a cupcake display stand and threw it at the zombie, which was struggling to its feet. She reached for the heaviest thing on the shelf and hurled it straight at the zombie's head. It hit hard, knocking the zombie's head off.

They stood there, breathing hard, checking around to make sure that the shop was now clear of monsters.

"Is everyone ok?" Evanz asked, and everyone nodded. They had done it, again. They had escaped.

"Stage one went off without a hitch." Will grinned.

"I'd like to suggest that fighting off zombies inside a small shop could be counted as a hitch." Elise noted.

"We're all fine, aren't we? So, stage one was completed perfectly."

Elise sighed, but said nothing.

"Onto stage two then. Weapon gathering! Go!" Aaron said, and everyone set about searching the shop for anything they could use to defend themselves.

After a few minutes of quiet clattering around the far corners of the shop, the six of them reconvened next to the cash register.

"Anyone find anything of use?" Elise asked.

"I found a block of kitchen knives. The small ones are kinda useless, but there are two big ones." Josh said.

"Perfect." Will said, and Elise took the block and put it into the backpack.

"I got this." Annabelle showed them a long broom with a wide brush at the bottom.

"Great. You use it, ok?" Elise smiled at her sister, who returned the smile and settled the handle over her shoulder.

"Look what I found…" Aaron pointed to the wall where a rack of frying pans were hanging by their handles.

"I call one!" Elise went over and grabbed one off the wall, and began swinging it around like a sword.

"I'll take another. I could do like, badass double weapon shizz." Josh said, taking one off the wall.

Elise feigned a jab at Josh with her pan, and he deflected it with his own. They laughed, and turned to see the others staring at them.

"What? We have to practice." Elise giggled, lunging towards Annabelle, brandishing her weapon. Annabelle knocked it away with the broom handle and then jabbed at her sister.

"Um, as much as that seems like fun, I think we ought to get out now!" Aaron said, pointing at the door. The crowd of zombies around the door had increased, and their barricade was slowly but surely being pushed away from the door. They turned to follow his finger. Josh was the first to speak.

"Well. Shit."


	7. Chapter 7

**How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse**

**Chapter Seven – Heal**

**A/N- Shout-out to my best friend Kia for proofreading and generally being awesome :3 WHEN LAST WE LEFT OUR HEROS THEY WERE TOTALLY SCREWED. In today's episode, they're still screwed. Sorry this chapter's kinda slow, the action will pick up again in chapter eight!**

"Back door! Check it!" Aaron ordered, and they ran over to the rear of the shop, searching for a back exit through or storeroom or some other way to get out.

"There are zombies blocking it!" Annabelle cried, her voice cracking. Elise looked around at her companions, fear evident on her face.

"What do we do? There's no way out." She said. No response. There were too many zombies, and the humans would be easily overcome by the sheer numbers of corpses.

"We can't fight, there's no way we'd make it out alive." Josh ran a hand through his hair. The panic was setting in.

"We'll have to run, try and get out quickly. There may be a lot of them, but they're all in a bunch around the door. If we can push through them, then we'll be able to get away. The zombies are too slow to catch up with us, and if we run fast enough we could lose them." Will said. It was a long shot, but it was something.

"Weapons at the ready, everyone." Evanz's voice was firm. They obeyed.

Reaching the door, they pulled away the barricade until only a single shelf was blocking the door.

"Ready? As soon as we open the door, run as fast as you can." Aaron's statement was met with a chorus of nods. With a final shove, the shelf moved away and Will threw the door open. The zombies began to push in. From the middle of the group, Annabelle used the broom to shove them back far enough to make a gap large enough for the survivors to get out. Evanz took a hold on it as well, and helped Annabelle ram the brush into the oncoming masses.

"RUN!" screamed Josh, and they did.

Shoving the zombies out of their way with the weapons at hand, the group shoved their way through, making sure to keep the zombie's mouths away from any bare skin. After a moment, they managed to burst through the back of the crowd. There was no time to pause, however, as the zombie horde turned around and reached for them.

"Quick! Back to the house!" Elise cried, bolting off in the direction of their base. The others followed, the wind whipping against their faces and pushing against them, almost as if it was trying to keep them in danger. At some point whilst they had been in the shop, the sky had grown dark and rain had begun to fall. It came thick and fast now, stinging their skin and blurring their vision.

Annabelle tripped and stumbled to her knees. Elise turned back and took her hand, pulling her to her feet.

"Come on, Bells! Come on!" Elise dragged her along, their hands tightly clasped together.

Josh turned, saw that the girls had fallen behind and reached for Elise's other hand, and pulled them closer. "We're almost there! Keep going!"

Will, Aaron, and Evanz rounded the corner towards the house, glad that the street was empty of zombies. The others managed to catch up, their pursuers following behind. As the six of them reached the red brick wall that signified their home, the horde were rounding the corner.

Without pausing, Will and Aaron immediately bent down to give a step for the others. Elise paused on the top to help the pair up the wall. She pulled Aaron over, but just as Will was mid-climb, the zombies reached the wall. One grabbed his ankle and tugged him back down. He cried out, and Elise tightened her grip, pulling hard.

Will kicked hard, breaking free of the zombie's grip and scampering up the wall, helped by Elise. The two dropped down on the other side, hurrying into the house along with the others.

They stood together in the living room, breathing hard. After a few moment's pause to catch their breath, Elise straightened.

"We need to stop almost getting killed. I move that we stay inside the house for as long as possible." She said.

"I second that motion." Josh stated, cleaning the rain off his glasses.

"Problem is, the zombies now know that we're in here. We're trapped." Evanz said, rubbing his slightly scruffy chin.

Annabelle sat down on the sofa, wincing in pain as she did so.

"Bells? What's wrong?" Aaron asked, frowning.

"I think I twisted my ankle." She said. The girl carefully lifted the trouser leg of her dungarees to reveal that her ankle was slightly swollen and already turning purple with bruises.

"I'm gonna go look for something to strap your ankle up with, ok Bells? Don't worry." Will gave her a smile then headed upstairs to the bathroom, looking through the cupboards.

Josh pulled the back pillow off the sofa and placed it next to Annabelle. "You need to keep it elevated. Just rest your foot on here, alright?"

Elise headed into the kitchen and tipped a little water from a bottle from the supermarket onto a piece of kitchen roll and returned to the living room, placing it on her sister's ankle to cool it down. "Keep this pressed to it. Don't move it too much for the next 48 hours."

Will soon returned to the main room with a roll of bandage. "We picked a good house to stay in. They're fully stocked. But you might want to go upstairs and look out the window. Things are not good."

As Evanz took the bandage and began to strap up Annabelle's ankle, the others walked up the stairs and into the bedroom they used for keeping watch during the night. The sight that greeted them was not a welcome one.

"Shit." Aaron breathed. No one else spoke.

The house was completely surrounded by zombies. Around the front, by the door, by the windows, by the back wall.

"We're totally fucked." Josh said, unable to drag his eyes away from the mass of rotting flesh below them.

"We're going to have to try and get out, find somewhere else to stay without alerting the zombies that we've gone." Will declared.

"You know we can't go anywhere for at least a few days. Bells can barely stand, let alone run from a horde of flesh-hungry monsters!" Elise said angrily, and Will held up his hands in a placating gesture.

"No, I know. I'm saying as soon as she's able to go, we need to get out." He calmly told her, and Elise nodded.

"I know. I know, I'm sorry, it's just…" She put her hand on her forehead.

"I get it. You're worried about Bells. But you don't need to, ok? We'll look after her." Aaron put a hand on Elise's shoulder and she took a deep breath.

"Ok. Ok, yeah. Thanks." The corner of her mouth twitched up in a smile. At that moment, Evanz came up the stairs and entered the room.

"I've done it as well as I can. I've only ever done basic first aid, but at least it's bandaged up." He commented. "She'll be fine."

"So once Bells's ankle is all healed up, we'll head out. But where to?" Aaron asked.

Josh pointed out the window. "Well, there's the house next door. If we can find a way to get out of our window and across that gap to theirs, we can run out of that house and get away before the zombies even know what's hit them."

"Ok, on the surface that sounds like a good plan, but how are we supposed to get over there and into the house without the zombies noticing?" Evanz asked sceptically.

"Hey, I'm the ideas man, not the logistics man!" Josh said, putting his hands up in a defensive position.

"You won't be any type of man in a minute." Aaron muttered.

"Too far, man." Josh replied, and Elise laughed.

"Come on, let's head back downstairs." Will said. "Standing around here staring glumly at our imminent doom won't make it go away."

For the rest of the afternoon, they sat in the living room planning out their escape from the house. As night fell across the city, Elise went into the kitchen to make dinner and came back with plates of ham salad.

"You may have noticed by now that I can't cook." She smiled, and handed out the food.

"Tastes good enough to me." Annabelle laughed.

In the end, they were all satisfied with the plan. Once Annabelle was able to move again, they would climb over the fence on the other side of the garden into next door's yard, then sneak out through the house into the street and make a run for it, lose the crowd of zombies and break into the supermarket a little ways away.

"I'll take the watch tonight." Elise stood, stretched her arms over her head and ran a hand through her hair. "I'll see you guys in the morning." She bent down and gave her sister a quick kiss on her forehead.

"Siiiiiiis!" Annabelle whined in embarrassment, but Elise just smiled.

As she walked upstairs, they all bedded down for the night, resting their heads on their arms. It had been an exhausting day, and so soon they were all fast asleep.

* * *

After a few hours of sleep, Josh woke up, breathing hard. As he regained consciousness, the nightmare slipped further away until he couldn't remember anything except how terrified he had been. He rubbed his eyes and picked up his glasses, sliding them onto his face. A soft sniffling sound caught his attention. Scanning the room, he saw that the others were still sleeping.

Josh quietly walked up the stairs, and entered the bedroom. "Elise?" he whispered, and the sniffling sound stopped abruptly.

"Oh. Hi Josh." The voice came from the window, and he saw Elise brushing tears off her cheeks.

"What's wrong?" He asked, frowning.

"I- I promised Annabelle I'd keep her safe. I promised her she wouldn't get hurt. And I let her down." She murmured, and the tears started to drip down her cheeks again.

"No, you didn't. She's alive, isn't she? And you brought her back. You've kept her safe. It's amazing how much you care for her." Josh felt his heart sink as he thought about his own little brother, wondering if he was ok. If their parents were still alive.

"I don't know how much longer I can take this, Josh." Her voice brought him back to the present.

"Hey, look at me." He held the tops of her arms and looked into her eyes. "We're all in this together, ok? We're gonna look out for each other, then we'll get to a safe place and make it through this."

"I thought you were going to start singing High School Musical for a moment there." Elise smiled.

"It was tempting."

She smiled again, and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him into a hug. "Thank you." She whispered.

Then the door burst open and Evanz staggered in, eyes wide. The two sprang apart, turning to face Evanz with looks of confusion.

"We have to get out. NOW!"


	8. Chapter 8

**How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse**

**Chapter Eight- Escape**

**A/N- The author here, to give you a little note. After this chapter, there will be seven more (up to chapter 15). And a lot of emotion. Again, HUGE thanks to Kia for being an awesome proof reader!**

"What's happened?" Elise asked, panic rising in her voice.

"You should have been able to see! The zombies are bursting in through the front door!" Evanz cried. "We're running. Moving the plan forward a few days!"

The three of them hurtled down the stairs into the living room. Aaron was carrying Annabelle on his back and Will was dragging the sofa away from the back door so they could make their escape. Everyone gathered up their weapons and Josh moved to the front door, bashing at the zombie hands that managed to push through the small gap they were making. Evanz and Elise rushed over to help Will, and with a few hefty tugs, the sofa moved away and the door was shoved open.

The six of them ran outside to the wooden fence on the opposite side of the garden from the brick wall. It was slightly lower than the wall so they all managed to climb over by themselves. Aaron carried Annabelle up to the top of the wall and passed her down to Evanz, who swung the teen onto his back so he could carry her with ease. Aaron dropped into the garden of the house next door to their former home, and they were off, bursting through the back yard and into the house, which was similarly proportioned to the building they had been staying in.

The sound must have attracted the attention of the zombies, because as soon as Elise and Will kicked the front door off its hinges a few zombies broke away from the crowd and came after them. With a hefty swing from his frying pan, Josh knocked the head clean off one of the zombies and Aaron sliced off the head of another and then they were running, just behind the others.

They sprinted down the street, their feet thudding heavily on the tarmac. The crowd of zombie bore down on them, preventing them from even taking a second's rest. Luckily, the corpses were not particularly fast, and so the survivors soon pulled far enough ahead to warrant a brief pause to catch their breath.

"How much… further… is this… fucking supermarket?" Will panted, doubled over.

"Not… too far…" Aaron wheezed.

"Here, Evanz… I'll carry Bells…" Elise said, moving over to take her little sister, making sure she was secure on her back.

As soon as the girl was safely gripping onto her big sister, the zombies began to round the corner and the six of them took off running once again. As they sped through the streets the sun began to rise, dyeing the sky a beautiful shade of pink. The stunning dawn seemed to contrast with the sweating, dirty, petrified young people charging through the empty streets of Leeds.

They reached an intersection where the main road turned a sharp corner and stretched on through the city centre, and a barely noticeable alleyway ran parallel to it.

"We can run… down the main road… which is quicker… but more exposed…" panted Josh.

"Or we can take the alley… which is longer… but more protected…" Aaron finished.

"We… have to get… to safety…" Evanz gasped, and he took Annabelle from Elise, who looked as though she might pass out, then set off running down the main road. The others followed, Josh taking hold of Elise's hand and helping her along. As they ran, they saw the supermarket ahead of them. They were so close, only a few minutes away…

And then Will yelled and fell back as he spotted the group of zombies blocking the road ahead of them. The others stopped, gasping for breath, breathing hard, and they span around ready to sprint back and take the alleyway when they saw that the other horde had caught up. They were caught, like rats in a trap.

They slowly grouped together, not looking away from the menacing creatures surrounding them.

"What do we do?" Aaron hissed through his teeth, knife gripped tight in his dominant hand.

"We're going to have to fight them off. Get through them and into the supermarket." Josh replied, holding his frying pan in one hand and Elise's hand in the other.

They kept in a tight group, not moving, staring at the zombies. The zombies stared back.

"On three…" Will said.

"Wait, do we go on three, or after three?" Josh whispered back.

"On three."/"After three." Will and Evanz both spoke at the same time.

"Oh, for fucks sake!" Aaron muttered. "When I say three, we run. Got it?" He received slight nods in return.

"One, two, three!"

As soon as he said three, they sprinted for the supermarket, attacking the zombies in their way, trying to batter their way through the crowd and get inside to safety. They attacked, Annabelle keeping them away from both herself and Evanz. Josh and Elise stayed close, swinging their weapons at the zombies that got too near. Will and Aaron were just ahead of the others, clearing the path with swipes of their blades and strong attacks with their pans.

Will kicked one zombie in the knee and its leg buckled and bent the wrong way, forcing it to the floor, but its place was immediately taken by another decaying figure. Aaron ducked under the arms of a zombie and gave it a fierce shove, causing it to topple sideways and knocking several other zombies to the ground. The small bubble of space moved with the six survivors; as soon as they cleared a space ahead of them the area behind them filled up with more bodies.

Elise swung her frying pan around in a wide semi-circle, bashing several zombies and caving in their skulls. Josh pulled her out of the reach of one attacker, kicking it away as they kept pushing through the crowd.

They reached the metal shutter blocking the entrance to the supermarket and Aaron and Will heaved the shutter up, lifting it over their shoulders as the others kept the zombies at bay, beating and killing indiscriminately as the flesh-hungry monsters surged forward towards them. Annabelle yelped in pain as one zombie's nails raked down her arm, leaving four bloody furrows in her skin. She poked its eye out and shoved it away. Evanz hissed as a shooting pain lanced up his arm when he shoved a zombie away, assuming he had pulled a muscle in his forearm.

After a moment or so, the shutter was lifted high enough for them to push the door open and get inside before dropping it again, sealing themselves inside the supermarket.

They stood for a few moments, breathing hard and staring at the door in stunned quiet. They were alive. They'd made it through.

Evanz walked over to one of the many checkouts, gently putting Annabelle down on the motionless belt, the injury in his arm pulling painfully as he did so. The girl was pale and sweating, taking short breaths. Elise ran over and checked her sister for bites. She was clear of bite marks, but blood was leaking from her arm at an alarming rate.

"She's losing blood! I've gotta find something to bandage up the wound!" Elise cried hysterically, turning to run into the store. Evanz caught hold of her and held her back.

"You'll injure yourself if you go running off in this state! You won't be any help to her, Elise!" Evanz said. "Calm down, breathe deeply."

Josh and Will both ran off deeper into the shop, searching for something to stem the flow of blood. Aaron hurried over to the checkout, checking Annabelle's wound for infection.

"It looks clean, there doesn't seem to be any decay around it. I don't think she's going to turn." He said, turning to comfort Elise.

"Bells? Bells! You're gonna be ok, sis." Elise took her sister's hand. Annabelle squeezed weakly, giving her sister and the two men a shaky smile.

"Don't worry, it doesn't hurt too much." She winced as she spoke.

Will and Josh returned soon after with a bottle of water and some bandages from the small pharmacy at the back of the shop. Elise took the water and carefully poured it onto the wound, cooling and cleaning Annabelle's injury. Annabelle bit her bottom lip hard, trying not to cry out in pain. As Elise cleaned the cuts Aaron bound the wound and tied the bandage at the bottom.

"Shh, Bells, it's ok." Elise stroked her sister's hair gently.

"Let's move you to somewhere more comfy, okay?" Will said, scooping Annabelle up and carrying her to the clothing section of the supermarket. Josh and Evanz pulled clothes off of coat hangers and arranged them on the ground to make a soft bed for Annabelle to lie on. Will placed her down gently and Elise sat next to her.

"I'll keep her company. Thank you all. For everything." She smiled, then turned back to her sister.

Aaron, Josh, Will and Evanz moved off into the store to find some food for breakfast.

"So how come you and Elise didn't notice that the house was under attack?" Evanz asked, after a few minutes. He absentmindedly rubbed his arm where he had injured it. The sharp pain had dulled into an aching throb.

"We were just talking about… stuff. Y'know." Josh looked down at the shelf, a light blush creeping up his cheeks.

"Bow-chica-wow-wow." Will said, shooting a grin at Josh.

"Shut the fuck up man."

"We're just teasing, dude. Don't get all huffy." Aaron grinned too, elbowing Josh in the side.

"I'm allowed to huff if I want to!" Josh folded his arms.

"Are your huffs part of the entertainment?" Evanz replied, a smile growing across his face.

"Let me guess, it's still national make fun of Rage day?"

"Of course it is. You know we love you really." Will patted his friend's shoulder.

"Well, they do. I still hate you." Aaron smiled widely.

"I hate you too." Josh's frown split into a huge grin.

"Aw, true love." Evanz teased, and the others laughed.

"I've noticed that we haven't actually chosen any food to make breakfast." Aaron pointed out, so each of them went off in their own direction to find something to eat. The supermarket was still pretty well stocked, although some areas of it had been looted already – the main problem was that a lot of the perishables had already begun to go off. The rest of the day passed calmly, organising food and setting up areas for people to sleep.

Once night fell and they were fairly sure that the zombies had not worked out how to get inside, Elise, Annabelle, Josh, Will, and Aaron bedded down for the night with Evanz offering to stay up and guard the door against any late night attacks. He received no protest from the others, who were all exhausted, and so he strolled over to the front of the shop.

Sitting down on the ground Evanz folded his legs beneath him. He accidentally put his aching arm down to support him and he winced in pain as the pulled muscle protested. He rubbed his arm as he stared out at the door for a few moments before suddenly and without warning, the pain intensified and Evanz clutched his arm, biting his lip to stop himself from crying out.

He peeled back his sleeve in order to get a better look at the injury, expecting bruising or reddening. But there was no bruising. It wasn't a strain. It was a cut, not too deep.

Evanz's eyes widened with fear and shock. It was a cut, that much was certain. But it wasn't the scratch that worried him. It was the shape of the injury, and the flaking and yellowing skin around it, that worried him most.

It was, without any shadow of a doubt, a bite.


	9. Chapter 9

**How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse**

**Chapter Nine – Goodbye**

**A/N – I think this is the chapter I'm most proud of. I've had it planned from the beginning and it came out really well I think. Oh, and also, I cried whilst writing this. And thanks Kia for your proofreading (even if every other note was telling me how much you hate me. Love ya too babe)**

Evanz stared at his infected right arm. Thoughts were racing around in his head, fighting for his attention. The first thing that came to mind was: "Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit."

He sat still and in silence for a good ten minutes, trying to calm his breathing. Fear and panic competed for dominance in his brain and he ran his hands through his hair, trying to work out how to proceed. Finally he managed to narrow down his options to two courses of action.

1. He could run out of the shop, away from the others, and keep his distance while he turned.

2. He could end it.

At first, the primary option seemed more attractive, but the knowledge that he could at any point come back and kill all his friends stopped him, and he knew.

He knew he had to die.

He stood slowly and crept back to the rest of the group, going to pick up his knife. Evanz pressed the knife to his throat, leaning back against the nearest shelf. He braced himself, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and was about to apply pressure when suddenly…

"Evanz! What the fuck are you doing?" Will sat up, rubbing his eyes clear of sleep. "Please tell me this isn't what it looks like." He sounded nervous, worried for his friend. Honestly, of all the people in their group, Will had thought Evanz was the least likely to lose it.

The brunette smiled sadly. "Afraid it is." He pulled the knife away and held out his injured arm, pulling up the sleeve to reveal the bite mark. The yellowness of the skin had darkened and spread all the way up to his elbow. He frowned and hurriedly covered it again. "It wasn't this bad before…"

Will's eyes widened and he bolted to his feet, running over to Evanz and pulling the knife away. "There is no way I'm gonna let you die. We'll wake the others and work something out. You'll be fine, man." He moved over to the sleeping forms of their friends and shook them awake, ignoring the groans of protest from the exhausted group. Once they were all up, Will dragged Evanz closer.

"Why are we fucking awake? I can't hear an attack." Josh said grumpily.

"Because there's an emergency you fucking dick." Will spat, and the others looked at him in surprise. They had never seen Will like this before. The only other time they'd seen him this angry was when Gubiak…

"What's happened?" Elise stood so she was looking Will directly in the eyes. He turned his head slightly and she followed his gaze to Evanz, who was staring at the floor. She stared in confusion for a second then her eyes widened and she covered her mouth with her hands, shaking her head.

"No. No way. No." She said, taking a step back, her voice slightly muffled by her fingers.

Evanz looked up and the sadness in his eyes confirmed her fears. Her face paled and Josh leapt up to steady her before her legs gave out. He looked in confusion at Evanz, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Then Evanz yanked up the sleeve of his shirt and everything became clear. Josh and Aaron both stared at him in silence. He was infected. Their best friend was infected.

"How…" Aaron began, but he stopped himself.

"Just before we got inside, I think." Evanz's voice was deadpan, his eyes once again cast down to the floor.

"What are we going to do?" Josh asked.

"Evanz's bright idea was to try and cut his own head off without telling us." Will said, turning his glare on Evanz.

"I…" Evanz began, then he stopped, his voice catching in his throat. He took a deep breath and slowly began again. "I can't let myself hurt you guys. It's much better that I die."

"No." Aaron spoke quietly, so quietly that the others almost didn't hear him at all. "_No_," he said again. "You can't think that way. Don't be so selfish, man!" His voice rose on the last bit, and he stood, glaring at Evanz.

"Selfish?" Evanz stared back at him, his expression changing from sadness to anger. "I don't want to hurt you! I'm done for, can't you see that? I'm dead already. I can feel it, you know. I feel my body shutting down. My muscles ache and my skin is crawling. I'm doomed, but you lot aren't. You can still get out of here. Can't I just die? Can't I do one thing to help you? I've got no special skills to offer. I'm not a fighter, I don't have special medical knowledge, I- I'm useless. Let me do this one thing. Let me die to save you."

The others stood in stunned silence for a moment. They didn't know how to respond.

Then Annabelle struggled to her knees, then up to her feet, keeping her weight off her injured ankle. Hesitantly she began to walk slowly towards Evanz, stumbling a little. When she was stood face to face with him, the fourteen year old wrapped her arms around him in a hug.

"You're not useless. You saved my life. Twice."

"Once, Bells. And you still got injured. I didn't do very well, did I?" he said, smiling sadly at the top of her head.

"I'm not talking about just that." She stepped away. "18 months ago. You saved me. I was broken. I couldn't talk to anyone about it, not even Elise. We argued every day. School was awful. I had no friends and I couldn't cope any more. I hated everything about myself. My mind was collapsing in on itself and I was spiralling downwards with no way out. Then, one day, I logged into YouTube and I somehow stumbled across your videos. From then on, things were different. I still struggled to talk to people, but at least at home I had a friend. You. From you, I found Rage and Hollow and Fluke and Gubiak and the rest of the crew. I had a group of friends who could cheer me up and who would say funny, stupid things just to make me laugh. Because of you, I saw that things could get better. I started to come out of my shell. I let people in and made brilliant friends. Elise and I got closer, and everything started to look up. All because of you. So don't you dare ever say that you're nothing! Because we all know that's not true!" As she spoke, tears welled up in her eyes and began to trickle down her cheeks.

The silence fell again as Evanz struggled to take in what Annabelle had just said. He stared at her, then enveloped her in a hug. Elise, Josh, Will, and Aaron stepped in closer and joined the hug. None of them spoke, they just stood together.

A few moments passed in comfortable companionship, then they broke apart.

"Well, I guess that's settled it then." Evanz said, a slight smile playing on his lips. "There's no way I'm going down without a fight now."

The group sat down in a circle, much to the relief of Annabelle's ankle, and once she had sat she stretched her leg out.

"So. What do we do? How do we stop it?" Aaron asked, taking charge of the discussion.

"The problem is that we don't know what's causing the infection. It could be a virus, I guess." Elise said.

"Or a prion." Annabelle added. When the rest of the group stared at the fourteen year old in surprise and a little confusion, she shrugged. "My biology teacher told us loads of crap we didn't need to know instead of teaching us stuff for the exam."

"So we don't even know what the fucking thing is?" Josh said, exasperated.

"Nope. So finding a cure isn't the most practical option right now." Will rubbed his chin, trying to come up with a new idea.

"Why don't we just cut his arm off?" Josh asked.

"Because he needs his arm, moron." Aaron said dismissively.

"Honestly, man, I'd much rather lose my arm than my life." Evanz interjected. Josh leaned over and grabbed the kitchen knife and brandished it excitedly.

"I'll do the honours!" he said, a little too enthusiastically.

"Josh! We don't have anything here to bandage the wound, slow the bleeding, or sterilise the cut. Evanz would almost certainly die anyway!" Annabelle cried.

"I'm going to go look for some bandages and see if they have any hand sanitizer or rubbing alcohol or something." Elise stood as she spoke and gently took the knife out of Josh's hand. "Don't let your testosterone get in the way of common sense, okay?"

With a quick smile, she hurried off deeper into the store. After a few seconds of fidgeting, Will leapt up and ran off to help her.

"We'll be faster if I help!" he called as he vanished amidst the maze of shelves.

* * *

They returned about 15 minutes later with several shirts and some antiseptic from the pharmaceuticals area of the supermarket.

"Ok, pull your sleeve up." Aaron ordered, ripping a thick strip off of one of the shirts. Evanz did as he was told and pulled his sleeve up as high as it could go. But the infection had spread further up his arm and the skin on his forearm was now brown and green and flaking.

"Shit." Will breathed, pushing his hair off his forehead. Evanz quickly lifted his shirt off over his head, revealing to the assembled company that the infection now stretched over his right shoulder and onto the top of his chest. Elise stepped a little closer and touched his arm gently, and the skin cracked beneath her fingertips. He cried out in pain and pulled his arm away, small pieces of skin staying stuck to Elise's hand.

"Shit. Shit. We can't stop the infection." Aaron said, his face pale.

"NO! NO! DON'T YOU DARE GIVE UP!" Will yelled, turning to glare at him. "Evanz is our best friend! We- we've gotta help him. We can." He slumped to the floor and Evanz rested his uninfected hand gently on the blonde's shoulder.

"It's ok. I'm ready to go." Evanz kept his voice steady, not wanting to show his friends how badly he wanted to cry. "It's much safer for you if you just kill me. Let me just say my goodbyes."

Evanz walked over to Annabelle first, and crouched down in front of her.

"Hey, hey, it's ok, don't cry. I'll still be watching over you, taking care of you. Whenever you need me, just look right in here." He tapped her chest, right above her heart.

"Evanz, please don't go!" Annabelle threw her arms around Evanz's neck and hugged him, her body wracked with sobs. "I never got the chance to repay you!"

"You made me believe that I've made a difference. That's more than I could ever ask of anyone." He hugged her back tightly, then pulled away, moving over to Elise.

"I owe you so much, Evanz. You've taken care of Annabelle. You're amazing." Elise smiled sadly, tears brimming in her dark brown eyes.

"Thanks." He said, giving her a hug too. "You can take care of her, I know you can. You're a brilliant big sister, ok? Don't you ever forget that."

She nodded and wiped her eyes, then squeezed his hand and he walked on to Aaron.

Evanz and Aaron looked at each other for a long moment. "Be strong, Aaron. This lot needs someone to lead them. So you need to be strong. I know that you can be." He smiled slightly and they hugged as well, and Evanz muttered in Aaron's ear. "I don't blame you for not being able to keep your promise to Gubiak."

"You heard that?" Aaron said, surprised. The oath he had made, that there would be no more deaths, had been playing on his mind the whole day. Strangely, Evanz's whispered message lifted a weight off his conscious.

"I did." Evanz released him and stepped to his penultimate goodbye, Josh.

"Josh, you are the biggest pain in the ass I've ever met." Evanz stated. Then his mouth twitched upwards in a slight smile. "But you're the best pain in the ass I could wish for in a friend."

"You know, I made all those sheep jokes because you're Welsh, but I guess I know now that I should have been comparing you to a dragon." Josh said.

"That was cheesy. But I think there was a nice sentiment behind it." Evanz chuckled. Then he noticed the slight shine in Josh's eyes and he turned and walked away. To the last person on his list. Will.

The blonde looked at him with that easy half smile on his face. "Gonna miss ya, buddy." That little smile, hiding how hurt he was inside. Evanz almost laughed. Will was being strong for him, and he was being strong for Will.

"Don't worry, I'm gonna haunt your ass to hell and back." Evanz hugged him hard then slipped the knife into Will's hand, giving him a slight nod. That calm façade slipped and Will's face showed nothing but pain and anguish.

Evanz guided his friend's hand to his throat and leaned back against the shelf behind them. As the cold metal touched lightly against the now sore and flaking skin of his neck, he turned his head slightly to face the others.

"This has been me, Evanz with a zed one one one out."

His last sight was Will's tear-stained face contorted in a strange mix of sadness, anger, and resignation and the metal bit deeper into his skin and then his vision blurred and the world dimmed and his lips weakly formed a sad smile.

And then there was nothing.


	10. Chapter 10

**How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse**

**Chapter Ten- Recover**

**A/N- I'm so sorry, all of you. I've probably lost my entire reader base, so I'll warn anyone who's reading this: it won't get any better. This chapter is a more lighthearted, and sorry it's so short. The action will pick up again in chapter 11.**

They moved his body to the storage room at the back of the supermarket. After that, they barely spoke to each other. When they did, it was in subdued tones, and in very short sentences. It wasn't that they were mad at each other, or even particularly that they had no idea what to say. It was that they knew if they tried to talk about anything, they would break down. And after a few days of silence, it just became the norm. The silence was comforting: it didn't intrude on their thoughts.

It wasn't their thoughts that kept them moving- it was the simple mindless need to eat and drink and sleep and repeat. Nothing mattered. Why should they try? Why should they keep moving?

Evanz's death meant more to them than they had realised. They hadn't just lost a friend, they had lost a fellow survivor. And his death showed them that they were just mortal. This wasn't a video game: they weren't heroes, they didn't have superpowers. They were human.

Startlingly, terrifyingly, human.

They lost track of how long they mourned. And then, suddenly, Will broke the silence with laughter. Clear and bright and genuinely amused laughter. The others stared at him in surprise but he couldn't stop laughing. Once his hysterics had subsided into chuckles, he explained.

"I was just thinking, and then I suddenly remembered that time in Worms when Evanz used the teleporter and warped into the wall." For the first time since Evanz's death, Will smiled. That was all they needed, one smile to set them off.

"Do you remember that time when we were streaming Dungeons and Dragons and Evanz tried to tame the rat?" Aaron said, and they all chuckled at the memory, except for Elise, who let the emotions of the others sweep her away until she too got caught up in remembering Evanz.

"And the Shrine of Evanz under the Quick Build arena." Josh added, shaking his head with a smile.

"Oh! And of course the rap battle. His challenge was hilarious." Annabelle grinned.

They stayed there for a while, reminiscing about times that they had spent with Evanz, things that they remembered about him and fun that they'd had. A strange sense of déjà vu crept over them, remembering the way they had spoken about Gubiak after his death.

"Evanz wouldn't want us to sit here and mope forever, right? He'd want us to move on, keep fighting." Aaron said. "We need to pull ourselves together and get on with surviving."

"You're right. Carry on in his memory. I mean, he'd probably rather we didn't waste however long we have left. He died to stop himself from killing us." Will agreed, pushing himself up off the floor. "I'm going to get breakfast then."

"Dinner. We need to get back on a regular sleeping schedule. This is getting ridiculous." Elise pointed at the skylight, where the sky was fading to a dark blue. They counted their blessings that the ceilings were high enough to stop the zombies from climbing onto the roof and breaking into the supermarket through the skylight.

"Dinner then. So is that a no on the cereal front?" Will smiled, then he turned and moved off into the store. It was quiet for another moment, and Elise turned to Josh.

"Hey, can I talk to you for a sec?" she asked.

"Sure. What about?" he said, looking completely oblivious.

"Erm…" she shot Aaron a desperate look, and he nodded slightly.

"Hey Bells. Let's go help Will make dinner." He said diplomatically, before leading the girl away into the shop.

Once the pair had left, Elise breathed a sigh of relief.

"I- this whole thing with Evanz made me think- well, we might not have that long left, you know? So we should try and make as much of this time as we can, right? And what I'm trying to say is- well- I mean…" Her head drooped forward and she sighed.

"Never mind. It doesn't matter." Elise lifted her head and smiled.

"Ok then." Josh grinned back at her.

Will, Aaron, and Annabelle returned not long after carrying cold meats and cheese, with bottles of soda to accompany the "meal". As they ate, they discussed more than just their current situation. For almost the first time, the group chatted about their ordinary lives: likes, dislikes, pet peeves, hopes and dreams, anything that came to mind. Elise deliberately made sure not to catch Josh's eye and Aaron rolled his eyes, signalling to Annabelle that the pair's talk clearly hadn't gone well. Josh, for his part, seemed happily oblivious.

"OK, favourite band?" Annabelle asked.

"Radiohead. Or Queens of the Stone Age." Will replied, chewing thoughtfully on some cold chicken.

"Hollywood Undead." Elise added.

"Imagine Dragons." Josh interjected.

"Green Day." was Aaron's response.

"Mine's AC/DC." Annabelle finished. Aaron slowly stood up and looked around, then confusion flittered across his face and he fell face forward onto the ground.

"Oh my god, Aaron, are you ok man?" Will asked.

There was a momentary pause and then: "Two… weeks…" Aaron mumbled weakly.

"Two weeks? Since what?" Elise looked confused. Then she caught a giggle coming from Annabelle's direction. "What's so funny, Bells?"

"It's caffeine withdrawal. Two weeks since he drank tea." She said between giggles. Josh looked down at Aaron.

"Seriously man? You're gonna do this?" He asked, folding his arms.

"Too… weak…" Aaron moaned, voice slightly muffled by the floor. "Can't… move…"

"We can't find any working electricity, and god knows we aren't going to let Josh loose around an open fire. So no tea." Will said, patting his friend on the back on the head comfortingly.

"Need tea…" Aaron sighed and, seemingly with tremendous effort, rolled himself over onto his back.

Annabelle giggled. "At least he's lightening the mood."

A quiet thump from the front of the supermarket made Elise turn her head and furrow her eyebrows in confusion, but no one else seemed to notice it, so she shrugged it off as her imagination playing tricks on her.

"Lightening the mood? He's being melodramatic." Josh said.

"You can talk, bitch." Aaron muttered, turning his head just far enough to glare at the offender.

"I'm not the one collapsed on the floor because I haven't drunk tea in two weeks." Josh pouted and sat back on his heels.

Another thump, slightly louder this time, caught Elise's attention again. But for a second time, the others continued their conversation without noticing the noise so she ignored it again.

"Yeah but my power comes from tea. That's what makes me Batman. The power of tea."

"You're just whining." Will interjected. "Stop being a wuss."

The third time she heard the knocking Elise whipped her head around and grabbed at Josh's arm.

"Did any of you hear that?" She whispered, dragging their attention away from the bickering of Aaron and Josh.

"Hear what?" Will muttered.

"That thumping, knocking sound. It's coming from the door." She stood very slowly and took a step closer to the door.

The thumps came again, a little louder and two in a row this time and Elise jumped back. Then she steeled her nerve and ran towards the door. The blood drained from her face and she ran back towards the rest of the group, who were watching her rapidly approaching figure with a mixture of bewilderment and apprehension.

"What- what's wrong sis?" Annabelle asked.

Elise stopped for a sec to catch her breath, then she looked up at the rest of them, fear and panic mixing on her face.

"It's the zombies. They're working out how to lift the shutter. They're coming!"


	11. Chapter 11

**How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse**

**Chapter 11 – Sacrifice**

**A/N- A lot of this chapter is description with not much speech. Sorry about that guys! Thanks so much to Kia for making this chapter a billion times better than it was when I sent it to her. Seriously, everyone review this telling her how awesome she is!**

The thumps got louder and more persistent as the zombies worked out how to lift the shutters.

"Shit. We need to get out! How?" Josh asked, looking round at the others. Will ran his hands through his hair and searched for an escape. His eyes fell upon a step that employees would use to climb to the highest shelves and a thought struck him.

"The skylight! Find things to stack so we can get up there and climb out through the roof." He leapt into action, sprinting down among the aisles to find something to stack. The others couldn't think of a better idea so they ran after him to find ways to climb to the skylight.

A few moments later they returned to the centre of the supermarket holding boxes to stack. Well, all of them except one.

"Where's Aaron?" Elise asked worriedly. The thumps were still coming, so the zombies hadn't broken in yet, but they were close.

As if on cue, Aaron returned carrying a ladder.

"I found it in the storage cupboard." He set up the ladder, then gestured. "Well? Go on, you guys."

"You're coming too, right?" Annabelle asked, tilting her head in confusion. Aaron paused, then shook his head.

"The zombies will be inside any second now. You need someone to hide the ladder so they can't follow you. And I can slow them down: distract them long enough for you to get away." He said as he picked up both his own knife and the knife that was still stained with Evanz's blood.

"Wha- no! No way! I'm not losing another friend so soon!" Josh said. "Stop fucking around and climb the goddamn ladder!"

"Josh, I'm not coming with you! I can give you a chance to get away safely so shut up and get out." Aaron replied, irritation creeping into his voice.

"You fucking moron! We can just push the ladder away when we're all up on the roof! There's no need for you to be a fucking martyr." Josh snapped, glaring at his friend.

"Yeah, man. We need you for as long as possible!" Will said. "We're not gonna leave you behind."

"We don't have time to debate this. Aaron, we're not going without you and that's final. We're in this together, so get your ass up this ladder!" Josh yelled, and at that moment the door burst open and the zombies began to swarm in.

The five of them began to climb the ladder as fast as they could. Annabelle was first to reach the skylight with one of the backpacks slung over her shoulder. Josh came next, gripping his frying pan tightly in one hand as he climbed. Elise scuttled up after him with the other rucksack that they had filled with supplies in case the need for an emergency evacuation presented itself.

Will followed behind, carrying another frying pan and kitchen knife. But his hands were so full that he missed a rung and slipped, sending the ladder sliding off the edge of the skylight. Elise grabbed onto his wrists and Josh grabbed onto Elise, and between the two of them they pulled Will onto the roof as the ladder fell backwards, with Aaron still on it.

Luckily, he hadn't been too far off the ground and so when he landed he wasn't too badly injured. Aaron leapt up, brandishing his weapons, and he looked towards the skylight. Will's eyes were wide with horror and Elise was beginning to cry already. Josh looked stricken with panic and Aaron was about to lift up the ladder and climb up but it was too late.

The zombies were upon him.

Aaron was fighting them off with all his might and was beheading zombies all around him but the sheer numbers were too much for him.

He hacked and slashed at the creatures, killing several at a time. Aaron protected himself for as long as he could, but eventually a zombie managed to bite into his neck and swallow the chunk whole. Blood began to spurt from the wound and Aaron gasped, suddenly lightheaded. The knives fell from his hands and he collapsed under the sheer mass of zombies.

The sounds of his screams were muffled by the heavy glass of the skylight and gurgled through blood, but they still pierced the survivor's minds and it was certain those screams would haunt their nightmares forever. Will took a quick look back at the scene as the others searched for a way across the rooftops of Leeds, and he blanched as he saw the zombies tearing off fleshy chunks from Aaron's bones until they moved away and all that was left was a pile of shattered bones and a mess of blood and guts that had once been his friend. It took him a moment to realise he was throwing up. He wasn't sure if it was because of the horrific scene below him or the fact that it was his friend.

"Over here! There's a ladder to a lower part of the roof, then another shop next door that we can jump to!" Elise said, pointing to her left. Without question, the other's followed her pointing finger. Will wiped his mouth as he hurried after them.

Elise scampered down the metal ladder and across the roof, not even pausing before leaping to the next building. Annabelle too just sprinted to the edge and sprang off, tucking her legs in and rolling when she impacted the next roof. She yelped in pain as she jumped up onto her only recently healed ankle but she began running as fast as she could, only a few paces behind Elise.

Josh and Will showed no signs of the hesitation they had felt on that first night of the apocalypse and threw themselves off the roof and easily made the jump to the next building. They hit the ground, stumbled a little, and kept running. Fortunately, it seemed the route they had chosen had mostly small gaps and firm-looking roofs. They kept running across the buildings, spotting clusters of zombies across the city.

As his eyes scanned the route ahead, Josh didn't notice where he was stepping and made a bad jump. In mid air he realised he wasn't going to make the gap and he slammed into the wall, his hands gripping onto the edge of the roof.

"Josh!" Will cried, running to help him. He reached down and wrapped his hands around his friend's upper arms and heaved, pulling her up onto the roof. With a final tug Josh was safely on the building and they were both breathing heavily from exertion.

"Thanks man." Josh panted, and Will looked away.

"Don't thank me." He murmured.

"Now's not the time to start blaming yourself man." Josh told him as he pushed himself to his feet. Will didn't reply.

"It looks like we've left the majority of the horde behind, there aren't any around here. We could climb down to that windowsill, onto the wall, and down into the street," Elise said, pointing out her desired route as she spoke.

"You go first, sis. I'm not entirely sure that route is possible. The windowsill seems pretty small." Annabelle replied having caught her breath. Her sister rolled her eyes and walked over to the edge, then slid down over the side, dropping onto the window ledge. Her fingers caught onto the bracket holding the pipe to the wall and she carefully moved to sit on the windowsill. Finally, Elise slid a little further down until she was stood on the wall.

"Now you guys follow suit!" she called up triumphantly, and Annabelle looked down at her.

"Or, you know, I could just do this." The fourteen year old slipped off the edge until she was holding onto the roof with her fingers, then dropped onto the wall.

"Well you could do that if you're boring."

Will and Josh followed quickly after the pair and they all climbed down off the wall and onto a small avenue just off the main road.

"Where should we go?" Elise asked, and Josh folded his arms.

"I'm not running anymore," he moaned. "There has to be a house somewhere near here that's stocked."

"Fine, we'll check." Will said, shoving his friend. The four of them split up and headed off to check the houses in the cul-de-sac.

After a few moments of checking through windows for any signs of zombie inhabitants, Annabelle called the three others over to the house that was closest to the mouth of the road. "I can see through this window… the house looks almost untouched. Can't see any signs of movement… maybe the family were out when this all happened. I checked but the door is locked."

Josh, Will and Elise peeked in through the gaps in the window blinds and noted the pastel coloured living room with floral, elderly person furniture.

"Uh, guys?" Annabelle muttered, but no one seemed to hear her. The three adults had turned to discuss the practicalities of staying in that house for a while.

"Guys, seriously, a little help here." Annabelle said, a little louder this time, tugging on Will's sleeve.

"Not now, Bells." Will said, shrugging her off.

"This is important!" Annabelle interjected a final time. Elise turned to look at her sister with an exasperated expression.

"Wha –" she began, but then she saw what had captured Annabelle's attention.

The horde had found them.

Quick as a flash, the four of them shouldered open the door and burst inside, quickly finding the largest piece of furniture in the room – which just so happened to be a bookcase - and shoving it over the door. But the zombies were already upon them and they knew that the survivors were inside. With heavy hands the creatures began to slam the window.

Cracks began to appear in the glass and, with a final terrified glance at the corpses mere feet away, Elise grabbed Josh's shirt and pulled his mouth down to meet hers.


	12. Chapter 12

**How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse**

**Chapter 12 – Brief Interlude**

**A/N – It's pretty long chapter this time, and I hope you all enjoy! I know you were expecting #Jelise feels, but those will be coming soon, don't worry *evil laugh***

It was cold.

The wall under his fingers was rough and grated against his skin as he leant there, panting and exhausted. His vision had blurred at the edges and he could barely see more than a few centimetres ahead. Then the world slid into darkness.

It was tiring, this sudden war against the undead. He hadn't slept for several days now and the lack of rest was beginning to take its toll. But he was safe now; he had escaped the clawing and grasping, odd shuffling and unearthly moaning, biting and stench of death. He could rest.

No. That was wrong. He wasn't safe yet, no one was. He had to keep going.

Gubiak opened his eyes.

The waning moon stared down on him as he crept through the alleyway he'd taken refuge in. as he neared the end he stopped breathing, slowly peering around the corner to check that the coast was clear and sighing in relief as he found that it was. _At this rate I'll die of fright before being killed by a zombie_, he mused, jogging down the empty street that was littered with broken glass and various other forms of debris from the nearby buildings. The city had been torn apart by the living and dead alike.

Something twitched in the darkness and Gubiak froze, fearing the worst. But when no crazed undead body came leaping at him he decided to investigate, edging toward a curled up balled half hidden by soggy looking cardboard boxes. He could only assume it was an attempt to keep the thing underneath it disguised from the zombies. He moved the boxes aside and elicited a frightened squeak from their inhabitant.

"Hello there," Gubiak said, crouching and putting on his best polite face and voice for the young boy of about four or five years of age. "Are you alright?" The child peeked at him through his fingers, relaxing when he realised the Gubiak was, in fact, a living thing.

"I don't know where my mum is…" he mumbled.

"Ok. Do you know her phone number?" the older male asked, not really expecting there to by any signal anyway. The boy shook his head.

Gubiak thought. He couldn't leave a defenceless boy here all alone during the apocalypse. He'd have to take the child with him, at least until they found more people to take care of him. "Come with me and we'll find your mum. What's your name?" he asked whilst aiding the boy in standing up.

"Patryk."

"Right then Patryk, I'm sure you understand some of what's going on right now so in order for us to move quickly I'm going to carry you on my back. Is that ok?" The boy nodded and Gubiak knelt, waiting for him to climb on. When Patryk had securely glued himself on the man stood up. "Here, I'll give you my phone so you can play games," Gubiak said, reaching into his pocket for the device. He unlocked it and blinked as his eyes adjusted to the light.

And there it was; a single rectangle barely a millimetre wide and tall. But it was big enough. They had signal.

"Hold on, I need to try something." He began to walk, calling the first person in his contacts.

* * *

Damn. Gubiak hung up again. He may have some signal but clearly no one else did, or they were all dead. He selected the next contact anyway and held it to his ear, walking out into the high street. He froze.

"Patryk, hold this for me," he said, handing the phone back to the boy as the dialling tone began. He quickly scanned the ground and found a longish plank to defend himself.

Ahead he could see a large group of people, lit red by a fire that was eating through a building nearby. Worse than the fire though was the large crowd of zombies following the screaming survivors as they headed toward Gubiak. They were almost upon them when Patryk held the phone to the man's ear.

"Someone picked up!" he shouted, but the zombies had arrived and Gubiak was busy whacking the closest ones away.

"Guby! Are you ok?" came Will's clear voice as it played directly into his ear.

"No! There's a fucking zombie apocalypse going on!" He abandoned his polite tone, though it didn't really matter because Patryk didn't understand what he was saying in English. "It's crazy. Have they reached England yet?" He thwacked another zombie.

"The entirety of Leeds is fucking deserted. We're stuck here," Aaron said. Gubiak had barely any time to register that the other end of the call was on loud speaker before a zombie lurched at him from the side. He swore and jumped back from it, jolting Patryk and making him drop the phone.

"Sorry!" the boy yelled as Gubiak smashed in the zombie's head and retrieved his phone, giving it back to Patryk in order to keep his hands free. "Aaron? You're ok?"

"Yeah. Me, Will, Josh and Evanz are all here. We're ok for now."

"Thank fuck," Gubiak said, the warmth of momentary relief flooding his veins. Or was that the adrenaline? "No one else will answer their phones. Not Jake, not Tyde, not Peace. I was so worried. I thought you were all dead."

Gubiak spotted a gap in the zombie forces and took his chance, pelting through it before it could close. Once freed from the mass he ran into yet another alley to escape, hiding behind the large bins at the end. "Ok, I think I'm safe for the moment," he panted. "These things are everywhere. There's fire nearby. I can hear people dying. Everything has gone to shit. The government has collapsed. I have no way of ge– shit!" He was cut off as a zombie stumbled around the bin and Patryk shouted to warn him. He caved in its head with the bloodied plank and returned to worried voices.

"Guby? Guby!"

"I'm ok. It tried to get me, but I'm fine."

"You've got to get to the coast! Try to find a boat," Will called. Gubiak had to stop himself from laughing.

"And go where? It's worldwide. There's nowhere that's safe." He could almost hear the despair on the other end of the call.

"Just stay alive," Josh said after a while. "Try to get here. It'll be alright, man!"

"I'll try but I can't promise I'll make it to you. Just wait for me ok? I have to admit I'd probably feel safer with the lot of you to guard my back." He glanced at the phone and took it from Patryk. "Fuck, signal's going. Wait for me guys, I–" Suddenly Gubiak felt a clawing at his back and he knew that it wasn't a zombie's hands. "Shit!"

Patryk was torn form Gubiak by the undead that had gathered behind them whilst he'd been talking. The boy stretched his arms out for Gubiak only to have them bitten into by more zombies. He let out a bloodcurdling scream as chunks of flesh were ripped from him and he was drawn further into the mass of the undead.

"No!" Gubiak cried, dropping his phone and wading into the crush recklessly. He grabbed Patryk's hand and pulled, only to find nothing attached to it. He looked up to see the boy, silent now that his throat had been ruptured, but still pleading for help with overflowing eyes.

Gubiak reached out, then everything went black.

* * *

"Wha– Where am I?" Gubiak asked groggily as he sat up, holding his aching head. He was indoors now, a darkened room filled with boxes of tinned goods. Some kind of store room then?

"You're at the research facility," a quiet voice informed him. Gubiak looked toward the source of the sound to see a stick-thin man with dark hair and a pristine white lab coat standing near him.

"What facility?"

The man huffed in irritation and crossed his arms. "Pandora Research Facility - Poland Branch, of course. Haven't you heard of us?"

"Um, no, not really," Gubiak admitted. The man looked even more annoyed.

"We're behind every major scientific advancement in the modern day, with branches in all six continents."

"Aren't there seven continents?"

"Africa doesn't count," he replied firmly. Gubiak was beginning to question the man's sanity.

"Anyway, who are you?" he asked. The man stood straighter and puffed out his chest proudly.

"I am Maurycy Czajka, head scientist in Pandora: Poland's section four, subsection two, genetic sciences. My research includes making unnatural hair colours genetically plausible, the removal of mutations in DNA coding, and the combination of animal genes." He wore a smug smile "I had great success with my natural fishing net makers, the _Atrax Esoxpiscis_, though they aren't ready for commercial use just yet." Gubiak stared at the man, who was waiting to be praised or something.

"Um, actually, I wanted to know who you are to _me_…"

The scientist uncrossed his arms and flopped in disappointment, giving Gubiak a look that made it clear he didn't like him. "I saved you from the zombies earlier when you got knocked out."

"What about… about Patryk?" Gubiak asked hesitantly, dreading the answer.

"The boy was already dead. Or close enough anyway." He shrugged. Gubiak clenched his fists and bit his lip, furious at himself for not being able to protect the child. He hadn't even fulfilled his promise. Gubiak swore to himself that he would find Patryk's mother and comfort her. That was, if he managed to survive all of this.

He got to his feet, and idea unfolding in his brain. "You're a scientist right? Do you know anything about diseases? Say, and infection causing zombie-like tendencies?"

"Are you talking about the undead outside?" Maurycy asked, looking down on the slightly shorter Gubiak. "I know a fair amount about that infection. Did you know it was once a cure?"

"A cure? How the hell is something as fucked up as _that_," he jabbed his finger in the direction of the outside (he hoped), "a cure?"

"That's what _I_ said!" the scientist exclaimed. "I _told_ them it wouldn't work! Though technically it _did_ cure the cancers, but I warned them there would be side effects!"

"What?" Gubiak said, not sure how to handle the new information. "You were part of the reason this has all happened?"

"No, no, I told them to keep going with the _in vivo_ testing but did they listen? Of course not –_ I_ wasn't assigned to the research team! So they just go right ahead with Phase 1 human testing and think the cure is complete and send it off to all of the research branches in all of the continents!" He was fuming, eyes burning with the anger at being ignored and then having no one to gloat at when he was right. At least, that's what Gubiak presumed, judging by the manic expression the scientist was wearing.

"So that's it? It's everywhere? The whole world is screwed." He sighed and put his head in his hands. It was one thing to suspect the apocalypse was worldwide, but quite another _knowing_ that it was. "Wait," he said, suddenly realising something. "Did you say it was sent to every continent?"

"Yes," the scientist looked at him curiously, "I did."

"So it wasn't sent to somewhere you don't have a Pandora facility! Africa is safe!"

Maurycy thought about it. "In theory, it would be. But in actuality it probably–"

"Theory is good enough for me. I have to tell the others!" Gubiak was finally seeing a glimmer of hope. Maybe they would get through this after all! "But how do I get the message to them?"

The scientist answered. "Given the situation, an email is the quickest way. The computers here are still functional, but–"

"Great! Where are they?" Gubiak interrupted again, receiving an irritated glare from the scientist.

"_BUT_," he continued, choosing to ignore Gubiak, "the nearest lab with a computer is off limits. They all are." He glared again. "We'd need to open Gate 3 to get there and I refuse to do that."

"Why?" Gubiak asked, beginning to let his dislike for the scientist show.

"That gate is the only thing separating this room from the zombies. They'll never get through it." He adjusted his lab coat in discomfort. "I must remain safe here."

"Look Maurycy, I have a very important message to send to some very important friends, so you're going to open that gate whether you like it or not."

"No. I will not go out there and die!"

"In that case I'll open it myself – you think I can't? Are you willing to bet your life on that? Because let me tell you," he hissed, making himself look taller to intimidate the scientist, "I _will_ open that gate, and when I do I will leave you here to be eaten alive by the swarms of zombies just _waiting_ to kill you." He crossed his arms as the scientist went wide-eyed with fear, fooled by Gubiak's bluff. Honestly, he had no idea if he could open the gate at all, but he doubted it.

"If you come with me," Gubiak said in a far more gentle tone, "then I will keep you safe, and you'll live and you'll fix this fucking apocalypse. You can do that, right?"

"I'd be a hero…"Maurycy muttered to himself, and slowly he nodded. "Ok, I'll unlock the gate."

"Good. Now lead the way." Gubiak gestured to the single door of the storeroom and the scientist walked to it and out into the corridor. The gamer followed, seeing for the first time the pristine white walls and advanced science labs along the hallway that were only a tiny part of the Pandora Research Facility. It didn't take them long to reach the end of the corridor where a mechanised door blocked them, bearing the words 'Gate 3' in large font and yellow paint. Maurycy punched in the key code and swiped a clearance pass through the lock, nervously shifting his weight several times as he did so.

The gate slid open with a low his and Gubiak prepared himself to run if he needed to. On the other side lay a small room with the start of another corridor on each side. It was dark, the lights either switched off or blown, and Gubiak could just make out the shuffling form of a zombie at the end of the passage way directly in front of him. It turned to face them slowly and moaned, beginning to move toward the living humans. It was surprisingly fast moving, but Gubiak didn't get the chance to study it as Maurycy led the way down the left hand corridor and into the first room they came across.

On the far side of the room was a high tech computer and Gubiak switched it on whilst the scientist closed the door behind them.

"How come there's still electricity here? And internet for that matter," Gubiak asked.

"Well it's not like the zombies have pulled the satellites from the sky is it? And we've got a backup generator here in case of emergency." He pushed Gubiak aside slightly as he logged in to the computer system and opened up his email account. The inbox was practically empty, the only mail there being circulars. Gubiak quickly began a new message and began typing.

"I just hope Will bothers to check his emails at some point," he muttered to himself. "There's gotta be somewhere over there with electricity still."

"Hurry up!" Maurycy shouted suddenly, shaking Gubiak to get his attention. "This door isn't going to hold them off!"

He suddenly became aware of the thudding on the door and he glanced around briefly to see that the door was already buckling. He turned back to the computer and, typing in the last few sentences he sent it, along with a mental prayer that his friends would survive to see it. Then he focussed on his own situation.

Gubiak scanned the room for a weapon or an escape route, catching sight of an air duct at the top of the room, big enough for even a fully grown man to fit inside but too far off the ground for him to reach it.

"Up there!" he shouted to Maurycy, pointing at the duct. The scientist looked at him with a confused expression and Gubiak rolled his eyes. He grabbed the man and lifted him up high enough for him to get a grip in the duct, letting go as the scientist scrambled up into the escape. "Help me up!" He raised his arms toward the scientist only to be met with fearful eyes. "Come on, help me!" Gubiak shouted again, but he could see Maurycy's body shivering and knew that he wasn't going to move any time soon. But he was desperate and so he jumped as high as he could, missing the edge of the duct. He tried again.

As his fingers slid down the smooth wall after his fourth try Gubiak heard the sound of metal rending apart from behind him, the door finally giving way. He frantically jumped again, this time managing to catch hold. He pulled himself up and was nearly out of range when cold, damp hands wrapped around his ankles and he was dragged back down.

"No!" he shouted, lashing at the zombies and ending up in a collapsed heap on the floor. He kicked out at the undead near him, trying to get back to his feet. One of them toppled over and landed on him and he shoved it off, but as he was doing so another zombie bit through his legs, his teeth cracking the bone inside. Gubiak screamed in pain, the stench of rotting meat and his own blood making him nauseous.

He managed to maintain enough reason to wrestle the zombie off of him. He grabbed something off of the floor and began beating the undead back, creating a barrier of disabled corpses between him and the zombies that could still move. He staggered back to the wall and jumped again, using the adrenaline-fuelled power from his functioning leg.

"Hah!" he cried when his fingers caught the duct. He pulled himself up through shear will power and came face to face with the scientist once again. "Come on Maurycy," he panted from the exertion. "Help me up."

The scientist did nothing.

The zombies behind them had swarmed over the makeshift barrier and Gubiak was pulled down once again, crying out as his irreparable leg was yanked and jerked around by the brainless corpses. "No!" he yelled once more. "I will not die here, not now! Not after finding out where's safe!" He punched a zombie hard in the face. "I'm not going to die! Do you hear me?! My friends are wai–"

* * *

The man leant back against the cold metal of the air duct. He continued to shiver as he had been doing for the past two hours that he had been wandering around aimlessly for. He retched and bent to the side as he threw up, the image of the other man being dismantled and cast around the room permanently etched into his mind. He began to weep silently.

Then he slept.

**So you guys probably liked that chapter, backstory for Guby! (which a lot of people asked for.) But hey, wanna know a secret? I didn't write this chapter. Will you please give a big hand for my mystery author, Kia! So everyone leave reviews saying how awesome she is for writing possibly one of the best chapters of this story so far! She deserves it, no?**

**Kia – Yeah dude, I totally deserve more praise than you.  
But seriously though, if Guby seems a bit OOC then I'm sorry, I've not really seen much with him in it. Besides, zombie apocalypses can change people, right?**


	13. Chapter 13

**How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse**

**Chapter 13 - Heartbreak**

**A/N- Hope you guys liked the last chapter! Did you all go tell Kia how amazing she was? If you didn't… SHAME. Go now. Shoutout to Mez and Iloinng for their reviews! This will be the penultimate chapter, as I've moved the action forward. Chapter fourteen will be the last. PREPARE YOUR FEELS**

As soon as their lips touched, the sounds of shattering glass reached their ears and suddenly Elise was yanked away from Josh. She cried out and he reached for her, desperately trying to pull her back. Decaying and rotten hands grabbed her shirt, hair, neck; anywhere they could reach. She screamed as she was pulled backwards. Josh, Will, and Annabelle ran to rescue her from the clutches of the dead but it was too late. The jagged glass of the broken windowpane ripped her shirt and cut into her exposed flesh as she was pulled out into the crowd of zombies. Screams of agony became strangled cries as the reanimated bodies tore the girl apart, feasting on the chunks of flesh they tore away from her bones. Blood was smeared on the window pane and suddenly the screams cut off as Elise's head was ripped from her body by the scrabbling horde.

The three left inside didn't have time to see her die: they had to run whilst the crowd was distracted and if they waited any longer the zombies would be finished with their meal and would break through the door and slaughter them all. But Annabelle refused to run, scrambling to rescue her sister but it was clear she had no hope. All that would happen was she too would be devoured. Will picked up the sobbing fourteen year old and carried her out into the back garden.

"Put me down! I have to go rescue Elise!" Annabelle choked out, tears streaming down her face as she pounded her fists against Will's shoulder. "PUT ME DOWN!"

"Calm down Bells! We have to escape!" Will said, doing as she asked and placing her gently on the ground. Immediately, the girl tried to run back inside.

"Stop, Bells! Elise wouldn't want you to die too! We've got to get away." Josh caught the teen's shoulder and pulled her towards the gate hidden in the back of the garden. She nodded quickly then turned as Will pulled the gate open and they sprinted away from the zombie-infested house.

Tears streamed down her face as she ran, and Will and Josh kept their heads down, a mixture of anger and misery. Two losses in one day. Their group had halved in size and the will to go on was slipping away. Josh considered just stopping. Evanz, Aaron and Elise, Gubiak, for certain. Probably Chris, Peace, Jake... His brother. His parents. Almost certainly gone. Were they zombies too? Would he ever know?

Will was having similar thoughts. What had become of his family? His sister, his brother... Where were they? Would they find him? He looked up at Annabelle, and wondered if his desire to protect her was in some way a projection of his inability to keep his own sister safe. Will shook his head as if to get rid of the thought then stuttered to a halt as he noticed that Annabelle and Josh had both stopped. They were in the middle of a deserted side street, away from the main roads and most densely infested areas.

"Where do we go now?" Annabelle asked. When the others didn't respond, she buried her face in her hands. "I don't know what I'm going to do. She was the only family I have left and now she's gone! I didn't even get to say goodbye!" She sank to her knees and her shoulders hunched forward as she sobbed. Josh and Will looked at each other, distress evident on their faces. Eventually, Annabelle's sobs quietened to hiccupping coughs and then stopped all together.

"You should keep running." She said quietly, keeping her eyes trained on the ground. "Keep going, and get out of Leeds. Find somewhere safe and save the world. You can do it, but I'll just slow you down."

"What are you talking about, Annabelle? We're in this together, and we aren't leaving you behind." Will bent down next to her and placed his hand gently on her shoulder but she shoved him away and scrambled to her feet. Elise's death had been the final straw and now Annabelle was cracking.

"DON'T YOU GET IT?" She cried. "I don't want to keep going! I thought if we could just stay together we would be alright. But Evanz is decaying in a storage cupboard, Aaron is in a mess of blood and bones on the floor of a supermarket and my sister is in pieces! What's the FUCKING POINT OF RUNNING?"

"Where's the point in dying? Do you think that you dying would make Elise happy? She'd want you to live a happy life without her." Josh said, stepping closer to the hysterical girl.

"How would you know that?" Annabelle glared.

"D'you remember the night before Evanz died? Well, I found Elise crying because she thought she had let you down. All she could think about was that you were hurt. Not that we all almost died. She cared so much about you, Bells," he said, trying to be comforting but coming across as more frustrated.

Annabelle looked down, a feeling of shame crashing down on her. It hadn't occurred to her for a second that Elise had cried over her. "I-" she tried, but the words failed her and she fell silent again. Will pushed himself up from the ground.

"It's ok, Bells. We- we know how close you and Elise were. But we have to move or the zombies are going to catch us any second. D'you think you're ready to go?" he said, gesturing further down the road.

"Where are we going to head for?" Annabelle asked, sniffing and rubbing her eyes as she spoke. They were red and puffy from crying.

"You had a good idea. We'll find somewhere to hide out for the night, then in the morning we'll try and get out of Leeds. From there…" Will trailed off.

Annabelle and Josh both nodded. From there they'd look for a way to get to the last safe place. Wherever that was.

As the three of them hurried down the street, the sun began to set sending streaks of gold, pink, and burnt orange across the sky. Annabelle couldn't help but notice how pretty it was. Elise had always loved the colour orange. She almost started crying again at the thought.

Will suddenly stopped then pulled Josh and Annabelle into the small shadowed alcove of a doorway.

"Horde at one o'clock," he whispered, pointing towards the elongated shadows that could just be seen peeking out from around the corner.

"We know where one o'clock is," Josh muttered, and Will rolled his eyes.

"Not the time," he murmured under his breath.

"How many are there?" Annabelle asked, keeping her voice low.

"Not sure. Six or seven maybe?" Will replied.

"We can take them out, get into the apartment complex behind them," Josh suggested. "There might even be beds in there. Imagine actually sleeping in a bed again."

"Good idea. Let's go."

Will and Josh prepared their weapons and Annabelle hitched the rucksack that was full of food higher onto her back. Josh held up three fingers, and counted down. Once he reached zero, Will and Josh charged at the zombies and Annabelle sprinted round the distracted horde, dodging any attempts to grab her until she reached the door to the house.

Josh slammed his frying pan into the skull of the first zombie he reached and it toppled to the ground. He shoved back another and ducked under the sweeping arms of a third, smacking it in the face with the pan. The zombie he had shoved lunged forward and Josh jumped sideways, almost tripping but managing to regain his balance just in time to bring his frying pan down hard on the back of its neck, decapitating it.

At the same time, Will stabbed one through the throat with the kitchen knife and bashed the zombie's head off with the frying pan. The corpse's head went flying off and thwacked into the side of a building. He spun around and sliced through the neck of a second monster. The final creature reached for him and he stumbled backwards, swinging both the knife and the frying pan at its head. He cut through its head and its brain spilled out of the top of its skull.

Annabelle ushered them into the lobby of the building, which was dark and damp and smelled of rot and death. She held her nose as she pushed open the door to an apartment on the first floor. Inside, the apartment was destroyed. Furniture was ripped apart and blood smeared down the walls. Chairs were overturned and it seemed that anything that may have been of value was looted.

"Are you sure this is the best place to spend the night? Let's look upstairs for a slightly cleaner room." Josh said, gagging at the stench of the room. Will and Annabelle found themselves agreeing with him and so they moved to a flat on the second floor that was less trashed and at least did not stink of decay. Josh and Will fanned out to check every room of the apartment, to make sure that they had no 'unexpected visitors'. A few seconds later, they both returned to the living room to see Annabelle looking through the rucksack, counting out how much food they had.

"If we're careful, this will last us four days, max. Luckily, my bag had more water than E-E-Elise's so we should be fine for about a week," she said, looking up.

"And this place is all clear of zombies. We'll be alright for the night," Will muttered as he flopped down on the floor next to Annabelle.

"So tomorrow we head for... where?" Annabelle asked quietly.

"We're in the north of Leeds, I think, so our best bet would be to head for the Carlton Gate. There's an army base near there. If it's not abandoned, there might be a way out there." Josh spoke with confidence.

"You really think that there would still be anyone in there?" Will asked sceptically. "Wouldn't they have already come looking for survivors if the base was full? They'll be long gone by now."

"Well, there might still be supplies and shit that we could pick up."

"Fair enough. We'll head there in the morning." Will lay back on the floor, his hands behind his head and he closed his eyes. "I'm fucking exhausted. Today has been awful and I just can't wait for it to end."

"Yeah, your friends being mauled to death by zombies will do that," Josh muttered.

Annabelle stood up and walked into one of the darkened rooms of the apartment and sighed in relief as she saw the bed that was still intact. She sat down on it, curled up into a ball, and cried silently until she fell asleep.

Out in the living room, Josh rubbed his face and sighed, replaying the day's events in his head. Aaron's murder, the way he'd nearly fallen off the roof, the kiss followed by Elise's death... For the first time, he really thought about everything that had happened. Aaron, his best friend, was lying dead in a supermarket. He hadn't had a chance to say goodbye to him. And Elise... She liked him, that much was clear. Did he feel the same?

"Not that it matters now anyway," he murmured.

He sat for a few moments with his head in his hands, trying hard not to think of anything, but images of Gubiak, Evanz, Aaron, and Elise kept popping into his head. Frustrated, he sighed and lay back. In a few moments, he was asleep.


End file.
